A Borrower's Anthology

Stars

A quiet night indoors leads to a light-show for an audience of two.

...

Michelle didn't need to go outside to see the stars.

That was what Philip had told her, and she would have thought it was some sort of cheesy line until he'd asked to meet her together with Nicholas after the Henderson family's dinnertime. A rather precarious time too considering Michelle and Nick's own family would wake around that time, but curiosity had nipped at them both, unable to release their hold on Philip's lure.

"I can always stick by the wall," Nick told her. "Be lookout just in case I hear anything inside."

True to his word, Nicholas seated himself atop Philip's dresser when they entered. His bedroom was unusually dark for it being only 8:30 yet her eyes functioned just fine. Philip's corner lamp on his nightstand had been dimmed, casting the room in the kind of light that crept through from under the crack of a closed door. Even the intensity of his laptop wasn't as bright as it could have been.

The most disorienting thing about it all however was the figure moving in the space. Had she not known it was Philip, Michelle may have been paralyzed for longer than just a minute. There was something inherently intimidating about how the shadows covered his form when he lumbered about, a beast out of nightmares from when she was little and terrified of humans. Normally, when the lights were off, he was asleep. Well, she supposed now he was pretending to sleep more than anything, if to catch a glimpse at her. It didn't happen all nights, but they'd had a couple of close calls when she'd been with her father.

Luckily, Philip learned the dissimilarities between Nick's leaner form and the more robust stature of her dad. And Michelle had been quick to derail her dad's path when she caught Philip peeking at them.

Stepping from underneath the television, Michelle lingered near the edge of his wardrobe unit. "Phil?"

The shadows spun around as he faced her, but it was his smile that made her forget her earlier hesitation. Now with his attention on her, Michelle noted the object in his hands. It was round like a globe, smaller too, yet had no discernible features along its body. Just black and nothing else.

"You both came a little earlier than I thought you might." He walked closer to her, eyes searching until they landed behind her. He nodded then laid a hand out for her. "It's fine though. I was just setting things up. You're hanging back, Nick?"

"Probably for the best," Nicholas replied, a smile in his voice. "I'll still be here to see whatever crazy plan you got going on, so you're not rid of me just yet."

Philip laughed. "Of course. Don't worry. I'm sure you'll be able to see things just fine from where you are."

His words didn't offer any more secrets than they had before. He'd been rather mysterious when he'd been clicking around his computer for a couple days. It would have been normal web-surfing behavior for him, but he'd been on one of those human shopping websites, amid others littered by different levels of stars attached to words. Despite having Philip explain many things about the World Wide Web to her, some eggs didn't have for her no matter how long she lay in her nest to incubate. Philip had known this too⁠--he hadn't even tried to hide anything when she knew he knew she'd been blatantly observing. In a way, it was frustrating. Unless it was expressed for him to keep something a secret, Michelle had known him to be rather frank.

However, as he carried her perfectly balanced in his hand, she only squinted at him and crossed her arms.

Ever full of surprises tonight, instead of going over to his table, Philip sat down in the center of his bedroom with his legs crossed under him. He set her beside him in the same gesture it took him to place the object of black unknown onto the floor. Like this, Michelle could inspect the thing from a nose-to-nose perspective, and it wasn't as featureless as she first believed. It was still black everywhere, but there was a ring around its body, embedded in the plastic material. At its midpoint was what looked like a camera shutter. The longer she stared at it, the more she expected the thing to open its eye, look at her, and hop on the semicircular stand keeping it upright.

"What the heck is this?" Wonder wrapped her tone.

"Nothing right now," he paused, "until I turn it on..."

Some unseen switch was pressed as the cyclops lit up, forcing Michelle backward until she was several feet away, shielding her gaze. Philip angled it so its eye pointed upward at the ceiling, but Michelle hardly registered him stand afterward. The object had transfixed her and disappointed her in the same vein. She almost made the mistake of thinking it was just a fancy new flashlight until she realized the myriad of white dots painting the dark blue bedspread, the plain wall, and the ceiling. What sepia remained from his lamp light clicked off.

Around her, illuminated by the cyclops, were guiding lights her parents had used for years to coast themselves toward civilization. Stars. But not just any stars; some looked a lot like the constellations she'd been researching, ones normally impossible to lay eyes on unless they were in the correct corner of the world.

"Holy shit," Nick breathed out from above.

Her knowledge of all the routes and stories was something on her to-do list to fully learn, but she recognized the most iconic of spoon-like curvature first thing on the wall beside his bed. Michelle parsed out the bright from the brightest. It had been difficult at first knowing how to see the forms behind the names human scientists gave the clusters. Stars spoke in their own morse code, and they whispered to take shape in the sky. Only the most studious understood their language, when she had grasped one's message, she had been hooked. Humans were so creative putting meaning into the meaningless.

Drawing closer to the bed, Michelle climbed up the low-hanging comforter and she reached the top, turning in her slow 360-sweep of the room. Her eyes were rabid until she found a set of thirteen stars, four and five spanning out on each side, almost equidistant from the other. If lightning bolts struck their zig-zag pattern, they would have been wings. She knew this constellation well⁠--after all, it was the first she'd been able to see without the help of guidelines. The Phoenix.

A dip underneath her footing made her throw her arms out for balance, and she saw Philip settle his chin against arms he'd crossed on the bed behind her. Once again, in the dark, it was hard to make out his facial features save for the way the stars peppered his skin like radiant freckles. She would have thought he'd stick out like this, but somehow he blended into the galaxy. The dots that lined him allowed her to trace the shape of his nose, his mouth, and his eyes. Yet another constellation she'd slowly been figuring out. Michelle smiled.

"It's called a planetarium," he explained. "A home-version of one, at least. There's some places that are bigger, but this is just a mini projector. What do you think?"

"What do I⁠--?" Michelle broke off into laughter. "Philip, it's awesome. You didn't get this just because of me though, did you?"

"No I'd always been interested in getting one, years ago. Suppose I just needed an extra push."

She trekked along the bed until she was met with the wall, her fingers pressing where the stars reflected back. Although the cold, flat surface broke the illusion, this was as close as she would ever come to touching the stars herself. Not even outside would they have ever seen this many and not mistake them for something human-made like an airplane or satellite dish. And she would have especially never been close enough to reach them either. When was the last time she'd even been outside to breathe fresh air not from a window sill? Before Philip and Darius had seen them, that was certain. It almost made her forlorn not to see the night sky naturally, but the feeling didn't last long when she roved Philip's bed and searched for another of earth's orbital wonders.

"It sure beats having to worry about foxes. Or stray cats around the yard," she said and looked back to him. "I wish I could bring my mom here too⁠--she'd love it. Heck, I wish I could just take this whole thing back to my room."

The light refracted sideways off the barest traces of teeth Philip showed in his smile, making it all the more brilliant. "Michelle, I think that'd be just as dangerous⁠--more, probably."