Southern Constellations

The bucket seat’s leather stuck to my sweaty legs like a greedy leech. I tipped my cherry coke can towards my lips, frowning at the lack of condensation on the metal. August was making records with the heat this year. I leaned forward to put my can back in the cup holder and my yellow heart frame sunglasses slipped forward on my nose. I lifted them off my face and rubbed the beads of sweat from my tanned skin, before pushing them back onto my face. The worn truck bounced along the back country roads. I pulled my feet from the dash and tucked them beneath me. Opening the sun visor, I checked my lipstick and fixed one of my bobby pins.

“Tucker, maybe try driving on the actual road and not the gravely ditch, then maybe we won’t be bouncing hard enough to get a concussion.”

He swatted at my hands as I reached for his drink, mouth still parched after finishing my own. “I am driving on the road.” His voice twanged. He waved a hand before him, gesturing at the dirty covered road before us. “Besides, you’re the one that wanted to see the constellations tonight. I can’t find that clearing in the dark.”

I pouted, my red lips puckering. “It’s nearly September. Shouldn’t this heat have stopped or let up at all by now?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know, Suzie? It’s Texas. It’s always hot.” He adjusted the Rangers baseball cap he always adorned atop his head, and righted the swerving truck after.

I smiled and patted the folded blanket between us. “It’ll be cold when the southern constellations are out. That’s why I love coming out here. There’s always a chill in the air after the sun sets and the stars start to sparkle. The weatherman said there would be clear skies tonight.” I bounced in my seat excitedly before perching my feet back on the dash.

“You could at least take your shoes off.” Tucker mumbled at me. What a grump. I ignored him and kept my golden gladiator sandals wrapped around my ankles. My high waist blue plaid shorts and white crop top were worn in the interest of not dying of a heat stroke in the AC-less truck. But come nighttime, I’d be chilly.

As it was, the wind was blowing my hair across my lips and my empty soda can onto the floorboard. Tucker grimaced and I laughed lightly. “Tuck, this truck is already falling apart. Chill out and enjoy the night.”

“It’s seven thirty.”

“Oh, goodie! Sunset is supposed to be around eight fourteen tonight!”

I could tell he rolled his eyes at that. I rolled mine back at him. He was such a grump. But at least he hadn’t said no when I’d asked to go see the constellations tonight. When the weatherman had reported a clear night, I immediately flipped my phone opened and called Tucker. He had agreed without a grunt, but now he was being his usual grumpy self.

I let my arm hang out of the window, fingers dancing around in the wind. Finally, with just minutes to go before night truly fell, we bounced our way into the clearing. A wide open nearly perfect circle, surrounded by trees. I grabbed the blanket and started running towards the middle of the field. Tucker ambled along behind me with the small cooler and the thermos of hot chocolate for when it got cold. I threw the blanket open on the ground and immediately laid down on my back, staring up at the darkening sky. There were still tints of orange on the edge of my sight. It slowly receded as the sun fell deeper beyond the earth.

I sat up and yanked Tucker down beside me. Within minutes, stars started popping up before us. They weren’t forming the constellations I had come to memorize yet; they were just popping up like fireflies, or headlights on a highway. Tucker laid his jacket on my legs and laid back with me, putting his flashlight and book away, knowing in a moment I would be pointing out the patterns in the sky and asking him if he remembered the names from the last few times we’d been out here. He would say no; but I knew he remembered. He just liked to hear me talk. No matter how many times he would say I did so too much; I knew he liked to hear me talk. Especially about the constellations. The southern constellations that graced our dark black sky, and shone down on us like a million camera flashes.

I traced out geometric shapes in the sky, listing off my favorite constellations. “That’s Phoenix, and that’s Vela.” I flicked my hand around in the air, following the lines and connecting the different stars and shapes. “Pavo. Hydrus. Indus. Libra.”

I kept listing them off until I started to shiver. Tucker looked at the watch on his wrist. “It’s one am. We should get you home.” I ignored this, and kept listing and tracing. The patterns of constellations always seemed to glow in my eyes, showing up like the way numbers and equations float around someone really smart in the TV shows. “Suzie, you and your southern constellations got me so dizzy. And you’re freezing.” I shook my head and started to point out another pattern. He grabbed my hand and laced his fingers with mine. “It’s cold but you pretend you are warm with me. But it’s cold. And every night we do this, before I get you home you’re nearly frozen.”

“Fine.” I grumbled, downing what was remaining from my cup of hot chocolate. I put it back on the thermos and stood.

Tucker wrapped the blanket around me and then his around my waist, carrying the cooler and thermos in one hand. Once we had gotten back in the truck and turned around, I sighed. “You don’t have to go see them with me if you really don’t like it.”

He stopped the truck, and looked at me. He studied my face carefully, as if tracing the freckles across my nose and cheeks the way I traced the constellations. He leaned forward and kissed my forehead, then smiled. “I’ll never let you freeze without me.”

And off we went, bumbling along the road while I craned my neck to watch the southern constellations pass overhead.