Girl In the Sky

Tonight is the night, Michael Jeffs thought. He sat up on his elbows, laying on his stomach, and his body stretched out across his bed. His face was up next to the pane of his bedroom window. His breathing left a little fogged place that would disappear when he breathed in. Tonight I'll find out. The tiny blots of different colored lights above him in the sky looked beautiful. Some were yellow. Some white. Some were a deep blue. Bringing his binoculars up to his eyes, they accidentally clanged against the pane. Michael froze. His heart started beating fast. He wasn't supposed to be up this late. If mom comes in here, I'm dead. But the apartment remained quiet. Not a sound from his mother's room. He breathed out slowly. But how can you sleep when you're not sleepy? He had slept most of the day already.

Today had been declared another oxygen day. All businesses and schools were closed down. All the television stations were off the air. People were encouraged to simply sleep during oxygen days. No moving around, working, or activity of any kind. Michael didn't know why. I'll ask mom tomorrow, he thought. He overheard someone at school say if you didn't sleep during an oxygen day, you would die. Anyway, the guy he overheard didn't like Michael much so he was probably just saying it to scare him. But Michael wasn't afraid. He scooted back a little from the window, tightening his bed sheets against his legs. Slowly, he brought the binoculars up. Tonight before I fall asleep, I'll look at the clock. But I'll do it kind of gently. Subconsciously even. That way I won't actually wake up. Then I'll be able to remember the exact time I went to sleep.

There were the tops of the trees almost hanging upside down but at an angle. Just below them was a view of the top apartment of the complex. All the windows of it were dark. But he had in the past spied Dawn coming out to sit on her patio, now and then looking upward in Michael's direction. But tonight the patio was empty. Michael sighed disappointedly.

He called her Dawn, but it wasn't her name. Her side of the colony received the sun first. The morning always began on her side. So he thought a fitting name would be Dawn. He had watched her for three months now. It was an accident how he found her. He was leisurely searching the other sides of the colony. When looking at the right side, in a park, he had saw people jogging, kids swimming, and in the same lake but on a different edge, people sat fishing. And suddenly he became bored, and whirled his binoculars to a gray cement building piercing out from the trees. That's when he saw her. She was standing on her patio, leaning against the guard rail, and looking down on the people below her complex. She had a notepad and a pen. She would write a little, bite the end of her pen, and then write again. She had dark brown, shoulder length hair. He loved her tiny black eye brows. Then there were her chocolate eyes. Not to forget her gentle bronze skin. Often, like the first time he had seen her, she wore sleeveless shirts showing her bare, graceful arms Sometimes he blushed and looked away if she would stare up in his direction. It was like she was looking right at him. One day, I'll meet her.

Michael suddenly yawned. He pulled down his binoculars and looked past his feet at the digital clock. 10:45. He turned back toward the window and tried to look at the ground through the tree branches crowding in front of his apartment complex, but they were too thick. He breathed out hard and fogged up a bigger place on his window, then he held his breath to see how long the fogged up place would stay. His face was almost blue when the spot had almost evaporated. Finally, he couldn't hold it anymore and blew out a big huff of air, and the window clouded up again. One day, I'll run away from here. I'll go somewhere and become rich and powerful. Then everybody will be sorry. They won't make fun of me then. Michael yawned again. Then I'll go over to her side. One day, I'll meet her.