It Was a hot Jersey July afternoon that had slumped the tomatoes when the Tyler family packed up. The family was heading into the Smokey Mountains. Tony was holding his telescope close to his chest when his mom called it was time to leave. Tony sighed as he took his last look at his tree house.
“Tony don’t you want to put that in one of the boxes?” Tony’s Mom had asked
“No, I want to be able to see the stars through the window.”
Tony had stayed up all night, once again, scanning the Jersey Pine sky.
It wasn’t an unusual occurrence for Tony’s Mom to find him out in the middle of the Family’s Cranberry Bog long after the crickets had gone to bed. After Tony’s father had turned off the lights and went to bed, there would be no artificial light for miles upon miles. The curtain was pulled back and revealed pyramids of diminishing stars. Like lights on a long bridge or poles on a railway. It was like a galactic blizzard of light that melted ever before it reached him. He would stand on his toes with his tongue reaching for the sky just to have one chance to have one melt in his mouth. He would be out there all night until someone found him missing. On this previous night Tony’s mom found him asleep on the flat of the roof clasping his telescope lovingly to his chest.
It was a long trip. In Virginia they had stopped at a motel. That night Tony got yelled at for sneaking out after dark with his telescope. He had been found on the second story balcony that was overlooking a cow pasture. His Mom was not too mad, just concerned. For she knew he loved them stars as much as she loved him. But as they departed the balcony, the clouds loomed in over the sky behind them. Then when they stopped in North Carolina, they were surrounded by the appalachian Mountains. They were so tall that they blocked the stars on the horizon. Tony was a little aggravated but he still had fun with his parents in the hotel room.
Finally after their long drive they made it to their new homestead. They had to climb a steep hill to make it to their house on the ridge. Tony had thought his ears were going to burst and his nose explode like a squashed plump mosquito! When they made it to the top, it was just twilight. Tony jumped out and started running about his ne backyard with his telescope. But to his dismay all he had seen was smoke, trees, and mountains. No stars. Tony hated his new home.
One day a week later, it was time to go shopping. Tony had remembered how big food store parking lots were. From there he was sure to see some stars. After his Mom had paid the grocer, he had ran out of the store with the telescope he was carrying. But the Parking lot lights were too bright and had blocked out all of the stars.
But as they got to the bottom of their steep driveway, Tony’s mom asked him to get the mail. But as he got out he never looked up. He looked at his shoes the whole time he took to get the mail. But all of a sudden a little shooting star zoomed over his feet and disappeared. He looked up to find it again but found another that zoomed under his nose. He watched it fly up into the hill. There above him was a meteor shower dancing through the trees. Like tiny comets racing through the night sky! They danced and blinked their way across the mountain. Above and below him did their little lights flicker. It was like tony was in the middle of his very own galaxy. Tony ran up the hill dancing in and out of these new found friends. And he met up with his mother with a grin that almost split his head in half Tennessee nights were not going to be that bad after all. For in the Smokies, the fireflies are like shooting Stars.

The Eclectic Pen - Shooting Stars

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