Six Feet Under the Stars.

July 16, 1995 —

“Mommy, are you going to plant some flowers today?”

Kathleen sat on the floor of their old porch, playing around with her toys. She looked up at her mother who’s wearing a huge pair of eyeglasses. She noticed that her mom was wearing gloves and was holding some tools that she usually used when she puts pretty flowers in their front yard, too.

“I’m not really putting some flowers today, sweetheart.” Mrs. Thompson said, smiling down at her daughter. “I’m just going to make our garden more pretty.”

“Oh.” Kath said, shifting her gaze to their front yard.

It was a bright, Sunday morning in the suburb of Towson, Maryland. The sidewalks were already filled with a bunch of people. Kids would ride the bikes, while some adults would do their morning jog. Others would sit it their porch, drinking coffee while reading the newspaper.

For Andrea Thompson, it was the perfect morning to rearrange her garden. She’s been planning to fix it for a while, but never really had the time to do it because of her work. Now that it’s her off day, she’s got the chance to make her garden more “pretty”.

“Mommy, can I go have a picnic with my toys?”

Andrea smiled at her daughter Kathleen, who just turned 7 years old a week ago. Kath looked a lot like her mother. They both have the same features, and the only difference between them where their eyes. Kath got her father’s eyes, which were emerald green, while Andrea has sapphire blue.

“Of course, honey.” she said, smiling. “Go get your blanket and place it over there, by the tree.”

Kathleen grinned and jumped up from her spot on the floor. She ran inside the house as fast as she can, leaving her mom laughing behind her.

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Kath looked around her and turned back to the paper she’s holding. She sat on her blanket, under the huge tree in their yard. She decided to surprise her mom by making her a drawing. She knew how much her mom loved her drawings, and so she decided to make one while having a picnic with her toys under the shade of the huge tree.

She was so focused on the paper she’s holding that she didn’t noticed that their new neighbors arrived, and that her mom stopped making her garden pretty so she could talk to them.

The house next door to them was unoccupied for a while. Back then, there lived a family of four. They were the Wrights and Kath and her mom became friends with them. But a few months ago, they left. They moved to Australia, where the father got a new job opportunity. It made Kath sad, especially since she became best friends with John, the youngest of the family.

So now, there’s a new family that’s moving in. And they just arrived and Andrea is already talking to them, which made her daughter smile.

Mommy is so friendly. She’s such a lovely person. She thought, smiling as she gazed at her mom.

Suddenly, her mom turned around and smiled at her. When she did, Kath saw a glimpse of the new family.

“Honey, come here. Meet our new neighbors!” Her mom said, gesturing for her to come over to her side.

As Kath walked closer, she looked at the family before her. They were a family of four, just like the Wrights before. The father and the mother looked nice, and fancy. They wore clothes that looked really, really fancy. They had the nicest of smiles, and they seemed really, genuinely happy.

The couple has two sons. The older one looks like he’s fifteen or sixteen years old, and he has the same smile like his parents. He wore a baseball cap backwards, which made Kath giggle. Next to him was his younger brother. He has light brown hair, and looked really shy. He looks like he's the same age as Kath, which she thought was nice. He looked at his brother, and then back at Kath. Their eyes met, and he quickly looked down. Kath could see that he was blushing, which made her giggle too.

“This is my daughter, Kathleen.” Andrea said as Kath took hold of her hand.

“Hello, Kathleen. I’m Peter Gaskarth.” the father said with a thick British accent, offering his hand to her with a smile. She gladly took it and shook his hand.

“This is my wife Isobel,” he gestured towards his wife, who gave her a warm smile, “And these are my sons, Thomas”, the boy with the backwards baseball cap nodded and shot her a smile, “and Alexander.” he said as he gestured towards his youngest son, who looked at Kath and mumbled “Hi.”

“Hello. It’s nice meeting you.” Kath said, smiling at the Gaskarths, particularly at the youngest son, who looked at the ground quickly when he saw Kath looking at him.

Isobel took hold of Peter’s hand and smiled at him. Then, she smiled at the two Thompsons and said “Well, it was nice meeting you, Andrea and Kathleen. But I’m afraid we have to go now, since we have a lot of things to unpack.”

“Oh, do you need some help?” Andrea offered.

“Don’t worry, dear. We could do it. We wouldn’t want to disturb you.” Peter said.

“Well, if you need any help, my daughter and I would be willing to assist you.”

“That’s very sweet of you.” Isobel said. “We’ll let you know if we need some help.”

“Okay then. Hope you’ll love it here.” Andrea said, gesturing around the neighborhood. “And welcome to Towson!”

With one last smile, the Gaskarths went inside their house. Andrea went back to her garden, but Kath stayed behind the fence that separates the houses from each other and looked at their next door neighbor. When she decided to go back to her picnic, she looked at the house for the last time and caught sight of Alexander. He looked at her from their living room window, but he quickly went away as he caught Kath looking at him.

He seems shy. I hope I could get to know him soon. She thought, walking back to her blanket under the tree. She sat on it and continued on her drawing, while her mind thinks about the strange, shy boy next door.

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The day went on pretty well. The Gaskarths didn’t seem to need some help, so Andrea and her daughter spent the day in their house, watching movies and playing scrabble. At around 7pm, they ordered a box of pizza and ate it while watching The Lion King on their VHS. Once the movie was finished, Andrea carried Kath to her room and tucked her in.

“Good night, sweetheart.” She whispered, placing a kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “I love you very much.”

“Good night, Mommy.” Little Kath whispered back. She shot a smile at her mom and said, “I love you too. Very, very much.”

Andrea smiled, and placed another kiss on her daughter’s forehead before she stood up and left the room.

Kath was ready to sleep, but then she noticed that there’s some light outside her bedroom window. She decided to check what it was, and so she got up from her bed and walked towards it. She saw another window like hers, and she smiled as she realized that it was someone’s bedroom too. And weirdly enough, it was Alexander’s.

She saw him walked around his room, holding a small acoustic guitar. She tried to get his attention, but he doesn’t see her. And after waving her arms around for so long, she stopped and frowned.

How do I get his attention? She thought, looking around outside. Then, she noticed that below her window was some sort of roof, and Alexander has the same thing outside of his window too. The roofs outside their windows were almost conjoined, making it easy for anyone to go from her room to his room.

Suddenly, Kath had an idea. She smiled to herself as she looked outside. Slowly, she opened her window and looked down. The roof seems a bit low for her, but she pulled on a brave face and climbed out of her bedroom window. She landed on the little roof without much of a challenge, and that made her happy.

Slowly, she walked towards Alexander’s roof. When she landed on it, she looked up and smiled as she looked through his window. Somehow, he still hasn’t noticed her at all. It seems like he’s too focused on the guitar that’s on his hands. So, she did what she had to do. She knocked on his window.

His reaction made Kath want to laugh out loud. He jumped and looked really scared, which Kath thought as cute. He placed his guitar on his bed and walked towards his window and opened it.

“What are you doing out there?” he asked. He has the same British accent like his father, which made Kath smile.

“I was about to sleep. But I saw you here and I wanted to say “Hi”.” Kath said, giving him a smile.

He shook his head, and smiled back. “How did you get here? Are you some kind of a magician or something?”

Kath laughed quietly, and then she offered her hand to him. He looked at it for a moment, and frowned.

“Just take it, Alexander.” she said, smiling at his frowning face. “I’ll show you how I got here.”

Alex took her hand and intertwined his fingers with hers. Then, he mumbled “Alex.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Just call me Alex. I don’t like to be called by my first name.”

“Okay. So Alex, come out of your bedroom and join me outside!” she said, pulling him out of his room and into the two conjoining roofs outside their bedroom windows.

“So, we both have roofs outside our windows. And they connect us to each other, right?” he asked, sitting on his roof near the center where the two roofs meet.

She nodded as she sat on her side of the two roofs. “Yup. I just discovered it tonight.”

Silence came after that. Neither one of them knew what say, so they just sat there and gazed at the stars above their heads. After a while, Kath broke the silence.

“I like the stars. They look pretty.”

Alex shifted his gaze to her and smiled. “I like them too.”

Kath looked back at him and she smiled when he didn’t avoid her gaze. They smiled at each other for a while, and then Alex shifted his gaze to his hand, feeling a bit embarrassed.

“I think I should go back to my room.” he said, getting up from his place on the roof.

“Aww, but we’re having so much fun!” she said, pouting at him.

“You’ll still see me again tomorrow.”

“I’ll see you here? Tomorrow?”

“Sure. I’ll see you here tomorrow.”

“Okay then. Good night, Alex.” she said, walking carefully towards him and giving him a hug. Alex was surprised by her suddenly gesture, but eventually he smiled, and he carefully wrapped his arms around the girl.

“Good night, Kathleen.” he whispered.

“Just call me Kath. I don’t like to be called by my first name.” she whispered back, laughing quietly. He smiled at how she remembered exactly what he said before.

She’s friendly and nice. I like her. He thought, smiling like a dork and still hugging her.

She pulls back from their embrace and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, which made him blush. She laughed at his reaction and gave him another hug, though this time it’s shorter. After that, he watched her climb back to her room. Before she closed the window, she shot him a smile and mouthed “good night”. And then, she’s gone.

Alex smiled and climbed back to his room. He couldn’t believe how quick it was to become friends with someone like Kath. He was scared to approach her before, but then she just showed up outside his bedroom window and talked about stars and then poof, they became friends.

Can’t wait to see her again tomorrow. He thought as he climb into his bed and turned his lights off.

On the other room in the house next door, Kath thought of the exact same thing.

Can’t wait to see him again tomorrow.