Celestial Love (Anthony Rizzo)

.25. Celestial Sphere

Anthony

Today's excursion lead Celeste and I to the planetarium here in Chicago. We keep our hats down and sunglasses on as we make our way into the little room that projects the stars around us. We find some seats in the back and hang out for a while. The show wouldn't start for another few minutes so we just talk like always.

"You said your dad was a astronomer, right" I ask her as she smiles.

"He was. He worked out of Atlanta studying the stars, calculating what we know and trying to figure out what we don't" she explains.

"That's really cool. I really wish he was around longer so he could see what a beautiful star you turned out to be" I insist. I see her cheeks grow rosy and she looked extra cute.

"I feel more like a dying star" she claims.

"That's a supernova and still super fucking cool" I say she she rolls her eyes.

"He wasn't that into dying stars. Although that's kinda like what he turned into" she insists.

"How did he die" I wonder carefully. She doesn't talk about her dad a lot but I assume that's because she didn't know much in the first place.

"He was walking home from work one night and a drunk driver jumped the curve and struck him. The guy ran away and we never caught him and by the time the ambulance arrived my dad was dead. They found him with one of my favorite toys in his pocket. The story is that he accidentally took it to work and I was a mess without it. Mom told him to hurry home so he could give it to me and I would shut up. Unfortunately he never made it and I don't really have many memories of him. But I still have that toy, and I still have the stars" she claims.

"You know, your name also means something relating to heaven. So whether he's in the stars or in heaven, you still have a part of him with you" I explain.

"You looked up my name" she smirks.

"Like I said, you have a very beautiful name. I was curious as what it means" I insist.

"I hated my name for a while. No one really understood what it meant, what it means to me. But as I get older I realize I don't know anyone with my name. And since I don't really feel like a lot about me is special, at least I have this" she claims.

"You're a very special person, you just can't see it" I accuse.

"Then I guess we are going to find out answers in the stars" she smiles.

The show gets started and there was only four other people here. I reach over and grab her hand before lacing my fingers through hers. Hers were really cold but my hands were hot so her hand felt good in mine. She squeezes my hand as I smile and look up at the stars.

We watch as they dance across the sky, we look at the planets and other galaxys and what makes up a star. The constellations and their stories of how they ended up in the sky. It was all actually really interesting and I was hooked onto what they were saying.

"Imagine the world is covered in a big black blanket. Now imagine the blanket is twice as large as the world that sits in the center of it. On that blanket are little white dots. Those dots are the stars and the blanket is the celestial sphere. This indicates what stars we see which is only half of what is out there to the naked eye on any given night. One whole rotation of the sun around the celestial sphere is one year, it's how we tell time, dates, directions, everything. Every time you look up at the sky the sphere is there, though depending on where the sun is you won't see many stars.

But if we zoom out we see there is so much more beyond our celestial sphere. We are just one tiny part of galaxy which is a tiny part of the universe. There is so much more out there than what we see inside this sphere. And we will spend forever looking for more out there knowing we have only explored 4% of outer space. And that's just 4% of what we know. As we learn more we learn just how little we really know. Our Milky Way galaxy is just one of 125 billion galaxies. It really makes you think about how small we are. How what we once thought was the end of the world really isn't. The endless possibilities are out there, past the celestial sphere and into a whole universe we have yet to experience."

After about 45 minutes the show was over and I was sad. I was learning a lot and it was actually really cool stuff. That and I didn't want to let go of Callie's hand but the lights come on and I knew we had to let go.

We walk out into the main area and Celeste's phone goes off. Her face falls and I knew that it was James simply from her reaction. So she excused herself to find out what he wants and I walk along the hallways looking at pictures. There were some stunningly beautiful galaxies and supernovas and other out of this world phenomenons captured and put on the wall. Stars were basically just unstable balls of gas but it made something so freaking beautiful. Who would have thought the most dangerous ones were the prettiest.

It was about five minutes before Celeste comes back. She tells me she needed to pick up some things before she went home and I offered for her to come to water tower because no one will question why I'm there since I live there and she's just shopping. James needed some stuff for the upcoming season and Celeste didn't want to go home quite yet so we walk around and she picks up his things.

"If I have a daughter or son I want a star name like yours. I think that would be really cool" I insist.

"Really" she asks.

"Yeah" I nod.

"I was kind of thinking the same thing" she admits and I smile. That kinda kills two birds with one stone.

"That way all the stars in my life would be meaningful and I would keep them close. Like a celestial sphere" I say.

I watch the smile on her face grow because she knew I was taking about her too. As long as she burns broght like she does she will light the way. Even if she is the star and she can't see it.