Figments of Delusion

A Pocket Full of Stars

          "Zeke!" I cannot contain my cry of delight when I see him. "It's been four days, where have you been?"

          "My dear, it is wonderful to see you again." He leans forward from his perch on the sloped brown rooftop next to mine. "I have been travelling," he says nonchalantly. "My employer requested my presence and he does not live anywhere nearby, let me tell you that." I laugh as he rolls his eyes.

          "I missed you terribly Zeke." I put on a fake pout and he laughs. The moonlight shines off his ebony hair and it almost looks as if he has a halo.

          "I had business to attend to." He winks at me with his piercing amber eyes from the neighbouring roof. I sigh. "What's wrong little one?" he asks.

          "I wish I could go with you when you travel."

          "One day you shall my dear, fret not. Until then however, you must stay on your gabled roof, and I must stay here."

          "I know, I know. You have only told me a million times." He laughs once more. The dark skin around his eyes crinkle and his hair ripples as he throws his head back. I turn from his luminosity as I hear my mother's old pickup rattling as it approaches.

          I see my mother's truck round the corner onto our street as clouds cover the moon. As she pulls into the driveway, she is glaring up at me from inside the car. Slamming the door as she gets out, she yells at me, "Mi'ja, what are you doing?! I have told you a million times, you are going to get hurt. Get back inside your bedroom. Ay por el amor de dios!" I sigh and leap nimbly across the roof back to my bedroom window.

          I have only just slipped inside when my mother throws open the door. "A ver niña. I have told you many times before to not climb on the roof! Also, you said that you would go to bed at a reasonable time tonight. Why are you still up? You are always up too late, you never sleep! And on top of all that, if you must be up on the roof, why, diablos, do you insist on talking to yourself up there? You know it looks bad and we have neighbours."

          She must really be annoyed; she only slips into her native tongue of Spanish when she is emotional. I am not too worried though, she is all bark, no bite. I have never told her about Zeke though for I fear that she would speak to his parents and that would be awfully embarrassing.

          I cherish my moments with him, and, no matter what, I don't want my mother to take them away. He so refreshing, like the night air on a feverish body; like the moonlight after being trapped in the dark. I feel connected to him in a way I have never before felt with anyone. Like he understands who I am in a way that I don't. I feel that we are like kindred souls.

          "No jodes. You aren't even listening to me," my mother's raised voice snaps me back to reality. Just then I hear the telltale creak of the second step down from the top of the dark wooden staircase.

          "Citlali, what happened?" I thank the heavens as my aunt enters to save me.

          "Your niece happened," my mother bites back at her sister.

          "What has Celeste done now?" I can see the small smile my aunt tries to smother as she asks.

          "I come home, and I find her up on the rooftop! It's past her bedtime and on top of that, she was muttering to herself again. It's absolutely embarrassing!"

          "Mamá, calm down," I plead. "I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was stargazing."

          "Citlali she is just like you," my aunt chides. "Can you blame her for wanting to gaze upon the small slice of heaven we are gifted each night?" I am not surprised that my aunt Estela is taking my side, after all she is an astrologer. My mother studied astronomy, the true science in her opinion. My mother studies the positions, motions, and properties of celestial bodies outside of Earth's atmosphere, whereas my aunt studies how these bodies and their movements affect people and events on Earth.