Nicole's birthday was in a huge club in the nearby city. I had to borrow one of the five cars parked at home. The one without any PharmaSilva logo stickers. It was a white mini luxury car, not an office transportation vehicle. The GPS got me roaming around the city, into narrow streets. I should have just rented a cab because I wasn't familiar of the place. Considering the club was a little famous, I got there not too late.
My friends didn't even know I was coming. All I said was "I don't know," and "You'll see me there when I came." In the end, I was there. All present. I showed the invitation I got and the bouncer let me in, not caring I was below eighteen.
The atmosphere was full of alcohol and smoke, things I hated. Yes, I drink alcohol but not too much, I got a trauma after what happened when I was fourteen. The memory was fuzzy, but I knew what happened.
Most people were from my school. Seniors, Juniors, even Freshmen were here. I was looking for the Strawberry blonde, but Nikki was nowhere. My friends seemed impossible to find here also. The crowd were nuts. A girl with the waitress uniform went to me with a tray of glowsticks. Red, Green and Yellow.
"Glow sticks," the waitress smiled. "Red for not interested, green for taken, and yellow for single." Oh. I remembered having this in one of the school's parties I attended. Without choosing, the waitress handed me the green glow stick and walked away.
"Wait!" I called her and returned the stick. "I'm not taken."
"Really? Sorry. You look like any girl will fall for." She apologized and handed me the yellow one.
I shook my head and took the red glow stick. "I'll have this."
"Okay," she nodded and frowned.
I banded the glow stick on my wrist and went to get a punch. I bumped a girl. "Sorry," I said. Instead of getting angry, she smiled and winked at me.
Geez, I already felt dizzy. "Joshua! You're here." Trish said holding two paper cups. "You look cute in the dim lights." She stumbled.
"Trish, I think you're drunk." I steadied her.
"No, no. I just came here." She snorted. "That Nicole always got everything! Even you! I hate her! I hate her!"
"Okay, you sit down for a while." I led her to the nearest chair and stood beside her, looking for her companion. I didn't know her well but I couldn't just leave her alone here. It was in my conscience since I found her.
"Are you with someone when you got here?" A waiter was holding a tray full of glass water. I got one. For a moment, throwing the water in her face would be a best way to wake her up from drunkness, but that would be embarassing. And even though there was a rumor that she had a crush on me, doing something like that was unforgivable.
"No one is with me. I am alone, Josh. Not even myself wants to be with me." She sobbed. This was getting worse.
"Josh?" Kennard walked to me with Alex in her arms.
"Oh my gosh," Alex checked Trish's temperature. "She's drunk."
"What are you doing with her?" Kennard asked.
"I saw her and she was saying crazy things. I couldn't leave her."
"Good decision, Josh." Alex helped her get up. "We're going to the comfort room, Trish."
"Are you sure?" Kennard supported her and held Trish's arms.
"No one will help her."
"Trish!" The girl with Trish before ran to help. "What happened? Are you insane?"
"She's drunk," Alex said to the girl.
"Thank you, thank you. Oh my gosh, you're unbelievable, Trish." She thanked Kennard and Alex. She haven't even noticed me.
"Actually, it was Josh who found her." Kennard pointed me.
"Seriously?!" The girl widened her eyes at me. "I really apologize for my friend. And thanks. I can manage this." She supported Trish alone to the comfort room.
"Whew," Kennard wiped the sweat in Alex's forehead using his handkerchief. "Are you fine?"
"Yeah," Alex said and squeezed his hands.
I stared as Trish and her friend lost in the crowd. I felt sympathy for her. I knew how hard it was not to control yourself. What's worse? Knowing what you had done the next day.
Kennard patted my shoulder, probably remembering my story before. "Enjoy the party, bro!"
I smiled and nodded, shaking the happening. I wiped the sweat forming in my neck and forehead and went to get a drink. Maybe a bottled juice was better. After what happened, alcohol wasn't my best choice. I opened the cap of the bottled juice using the opener and poured it in a red paper cup. "Josh!" Fredd and Mary greeted me and they stormed to the dancefloor.
"Excuse me," a guy from baseball team shoved me away to get a drink. I stepped back and turned, not wanting a fight tonight. I checked the food and found some brownies.
I stumbled backward when I stepped on something. "Watch it!" A familiar voice shouted under the buffet of snacks.
I leaned down and came face-to-face with Thonia. "What were you doing down there?" She wore black silky dress above her knees and black leggings with ankle-high boots. Nothing compared to my plain gray t-shirt and brown denim.
I stood and offered to help her stand. She fixed her messy hair and untangled the stands in her beaded braid. It was my first time to see her in black and this hair style. I must say she looked stunning. She ignored my hand and stood by herself.
"What were you doing?" I asked again, taking my hand that I offered in my pocket.
She tucked a ring in her index finger and showed it it me. "It fell."
"Not your size?" I noticed it was big before.
"Yeah. I am trying to place it in my ring finger but I almost lost it everytime." She turned it so that the diamond was above. "Maybe that's what things were. They should fix in the places even though you think it's not the proper. But that is where they belong and where they should be."
"Wait, that's gonna be too long for a single popsicle stick." I smiled.
She chuckled and took my joke. "Anyway, you're here."
"Yes, isn't that obvious?" I poked her chin and drank my juice.
She defensively brushed the spot. "Why do you keep on doing that?"
"Because I know how you will react after," I laughed.
She bended her arm and showed me the red glow stick--which was a band by then. "Not interested?"
I bended my arm as well and pointed to the similar band. "Nah," I said.
"So," she looked around us. "What's your gift or surprise for Nicole?"
For the whole week, I forgot to think about it. "Nothing," I said.
"Nothing?" she nodded and crossed her arms. "Well, good choice."
I was about to ask what she meant when she gestured to the center of the dance floor. Lance, an alumni was holding a huge box and bouquet of roses. The spotlight lightened them. After that, Nicole hugged him and they made out. In front of these people.
I removed my gaze and looked back at Thonia. "Is that necessary?"
"The kiss?" Thonia set my face between her hands and looked deep in my eyes, searching for something.
"Hey, what now?" I asked her, shaking my head.
"No pain? How come you don't feel anything?" She pushed me after. "Are you made of stone?"
"What do you mean?" I didn't understand her. Glanced back at Nicole and Lance. The spotlight were down now, but they were still kissing.
"You just saw the girl you like kissing someone else. Didn't you feel something?" She said it like it was the thing normal people would do.
"Well, I do feel something, but it was far from pain: disgust, nausea."
She laughed. "Unbelievable, Joshua Silva."
I raked my hair and drank. "Want some drink?" I offered my cup and took it back instantly. How ridiculous for me to do that. She wouldn't drink in my same cup.
She shook her head. "I don't drink alcohol."
"You mean not yet? In your entire life?" My cup was not really alcohol.
"Of course, I did! Every New Year's and special occasions I would drink with my family. But I never got drunk or even drink alcohol more than a glass with my friends, even with Asaila." When she observed my curiosity, she continued. "Well, it's the same with why you don't go to dances or dates."
I didn't go with dances because I just didn't like to. I wasn't good with conversations and...
and...
and I wanted to make my first special.
"I wanted my first time to be special." She echoed my thought.
I laughed at the coincidence.
"What? It wasn't that funny reason!" She thought I was laughing because I think it was funny, but she laughed too.
"Then if it isn't for the drinks, why are you here? The dare was off."
"A forced me to go here. She said I should finally meet her boyfriend." She leaned on the buffet table and crossed her arms again. "I didn't go to school yesterday. That's why our plan to go out yesterdaywas cancelled."
"Oh! My sister was looking for you."
"May?" she looked past me to the tables. "Maybe it's what Liza told me about our club project."
"Yes, I guess so." I leaned on the buffet beside her.
She stood straight and made a face. "Speaking of." Asaila and a guy walked to us. Asaila was wearing shiny pink skirt and white t-shirt with the words: I love him→, and the guy beside her had the same shirt that said: I love her ←. It was nice to see a couple with couple shirt but I didn't understand why they had to do that.
"Thonia!" Asaila hugged her. "I'd like you to meet Arthur. Arthur, this is my best friend, Thonia." Arthur wasn't that bad as what Thonia explained, but he really had a round face.
"It's nice to finally meet you," he shook Thonia's hand and glanced at me. "And you must be... Rick?"
I felt Thonia went uneasy. Asaila hugged him harder than usual. "No, babe, this is Joshua Silva. Our... friend."
Arthur seemed embarrased and offerd his hands to me. "Hi," I said. "Gotta go get some drinks, you want?"
"I'll go with you," Arthur said.
"Ten percent alcohol." Asaila said.
"I'm fine," Thonia said.
The girls talked about something as we went to grab some drinks. "Sorry, dude. I thought you were the Rick Raymond Asaila told me."
"I don't mind." I led the way to the chiller. He got two beer cans with less alcohol and I grabbed two juice bottles.
"You're dating Thonia?"
"Me? No. No, we just bumped each other." I explained.
"I thought you were. Asaila and I were watching you two while we were in the dance floor. You get along well." How could he say that? We didn't know each other for not longer than five minutes.
We returned to the girls and they found an empty table. I handed Thonia the juice bottle. She refused but I clarified, "One percent alcohol." I pointed to the Ingredients table.
"Thanks," she said.
"I have to go, see you around." I said because I didn't want to feel that third--I mean, the fourth--wheel. After leaving them, I found Nicole on the bar. "Happy birthday," I told her and sat on the stool two seats away.
"Thanks, Joshua." She smiled. "And I'm glad you came."
Lance came and took her. I thought about what Thonia said when we saw them kissing. I didn't feel anything but a little grossed out of Public Display of Affection. Maybe I didn't really loved her after all, because as what they've said, "True love can make the happiest and worst feelings in the world."
I hoped Thonia would like Arthur even though he'd mistaken me for Rick. That was a bad approach for him.
"Joshua!" Fredd rolled my chair to face him. He was a little high, maybe because of Mary who was laughing also. "Don't be so gloomy, my man!"
"I'm not," I chuckled and shuffled his hair. "Are you taking drugs, bro? You seem so high."
"We're not! I won't waste my beloved life on drugs." He shoved my hand on his hair and helped Mary sat on the stool beside mine; he remained standing. "Anyway, we're happy because we wanted to make you happy. Kenny said you were already here when Lance did his thing, etcera. We wanted to make you smile."
"Thank you for the effort, Fredd, but it wasn't bad as you think. I don't really have a thing for her."
Fredd tapped his chin. "If you say so." He and Mary ordered drinks to the bartender.
"Still on alcohol diet?" He snatched my cup and smelled it.
"Yes," I said. Fredd was already my best buddy when that happened in middle school.
"Get over it!" Fredd grinned and hugged Mary who was sitting on a stool. "By the way, I saw Thonia. I thought the dare was gone?"
"It is, but Asaila wanted her to meet her boyfriend."
He laughed. "So it was for real then. Asaila Visca has a boyfriend."
"Don't be so rude," I told him.
I stayed there for a while, being witness of how my friend confess his love for her girlfriend. After a while, I felt sleepy so I decided to leave them and walk outside after I got another drink. The chiller was nearly empty. The club was packed, all invited by Nicole. As I leaned to get ice, I saw a faint glow on the ground. I got it and realized it was the same ring Thonia had--white-gold with a diamond cut. I reached for it under the chairs and hid it in my pocket. It must be very special for her.
I stood and looked for her even though it seemed impossible in this thick crowd of drunken teenagers. Miraculously, as I was walking, I accidentally stepped on a hand twice tonight. I already knew who it was. "Stand up," I told her. Thonia was searching below the mantled tables and chairs.
"Ouch! You stepped on my hand again. Watch your step!" Her eyes were red and if I didn't know she didn't drink alcohol, I would think she was just drunk and going insane under the mantles. Was she crying?
I fished the ring in my pocket. "So you don't want this?"
She wiped her eyes and stood. "How--" She checked if it was true. She looked at me first like thinking if she would do what she planned to do next. A millisecond after, she hugged me. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome," I said, frozen in my place.
"God," she pulled off and wiped her face. I offered my gray handkerchief. She hesitated and smelled it. "Is this clean?"
"Give me back," I said, snatching it from her.
"Thanks again," she laughed and used it. "I hate this place, I think I should go."
"I hate this place as bad." The urge to so somewhere else hit me. The smoke from cigarettes and incense made my nausea worse.
"Do you wanna go somewhere else?" She wanted to wipe her nose using my handkerchief. "Can I?"
"Yes," I said and led her out of the club. "Just return it on Monday."
"Okay," she said and beamed. My friends would say I was bipolar, but she was the most bipolar person I ever met, worse than my sister. "So, where are we heading?"
"Are you asking me on a date?" I fight the laughter. She stopped walking and hit my forearm with a blow. I laughed and get my phone. "What's the problem? According to dictionary, Date: A meeting with a lover; a person so met." I looked at her and laughed. "Since we're not lovers, we're in the second description." I read the next texts, "Date: An arranged social meeting. What were you thinking?"
"Whatever," she rolled her eyes and continued walking farther.
"Spanish: Cita," I continued reading the translations as I followed her. "French: Rendezvous, German: Treffen, Italian: Incontro..."
"Shut up, okay!" she said with frustration.
I kept my phone and forced myself to be serious. "Okay, well, I better go back inside and go somewhere by myself." I walked to the parking lot to my father's car. I didn't look back partly because I didn't want her to see I wasn't serious and partly because I really wanted to go somewhere tonight. Even without companion.
"Hey!" she called back not long enough for me to go far. I turned and saw her keeping up my pace with her boots. She smirked and looked at me with that Thonia-glare with mixture of humor, curiosity, irritation, and amusement. "Your sarcasm won't take you anywhere, Joshua Silva."
"What was that suppose to mean?" I stared at her, she stared back.
"Let's go somewhere," she said and walked ahead of me although she didn't know where the car was. "What are you waiting for? Tomorrow?" I just shook my head and followed her.
"Where do you want to go?" I asked her, to be sure where I would drive to.
"Just somewhere." She got a beer bottle from her bag. "I haven't been in a real date for a long time."
I started the engine. "So you really call this a date?"
"A no-malice date. Unromantic date. Don't be so ambitious." She laughed and placed the beer above the gun compartment. "Sorry, I only got one."
"I thought you never drink with anyone rather than your family?" Unparking in this small parking lot full of expensive cars and mini trucks were hard for a beginner like me, but I didn't show it.
"That's why it will be your job to make it special." She removed her heels and leaned on the car door. She closed her eyes. I started out of the highway. "Joshua Silva," I turned and saw her glaring at me. She pointed her knuckles on my neck, but it hardly touched my skin. I didn't saw her having it earlier. "Don't do anything stupid to me, unless you wanted to die."
"I won't," I said, "Get that thing away from me."
"Good. Now, take me to somewhere." She opened the radio and slept. Mayday Parade's Center of Attention boomed as I drove away from the club.
I didn't really know where somewhere was. But before I explored where that was, I went home first and left Thonia asleep in the car.
Seemed that my parents and May were already sleeping because the lights were off. It wasn't early but it wasn't that late to have them all asleep in this time of the night.
I went to the second floor and opened the wine cellar using the key hidden behind the frame beside the door. It would be my first time to go in this mysterious room, my parents forbid us. Once I opened it, the smell of grapes and alcohol filled the air. There were five shelves of wine, probably my height, with four or six layers full of new and vintage wine bottles.
My father told me that I would understand what he said once I saw this. I did. On the farthest side of the room, there was a glass shelf with different wines. Each of the wines had labels written on masking tape and pentel pen.
Josh's First Date
Josh's 18th Birthday
Josh's Highschool Graduation
There were alot more wine bottles with my name and events, same with May. I got the bottle I went in here for and went to my room to get something and went outside.
"Where have you been?" Thonia woke up while I closed the door.
"I have an idea where somewhere is." I smiled and kept the bottle on the back seat. I drove deeper in our village where vacant lots were and no night patrol would distract us. I turned the engine off and went out. I extended my arms widely and said, "Thonia Buenviaje, welcome to somewhere!"
All I could see was Thonia's smile and hands that held the beer bottle. "Great job, Josh."
"Thank you," I vowed as magicians would after a great show. There were no houses, the next alive street was probably meters away. It was just a clearing of empty lawn that stretched for yards.
She tried to open the bottle she was holding, but failed. "I have a problem," she raised it.
"May I see?" The cap wouldn't be removed without a cap opener, unfortunately, I left my Swiss knife at home. "You won't be needing this!" I aimed and threw the bottle as far as I could while sitting on the car hood.
"No!" She tried to stopped me. "What's your problem? Do you know that the next store was kilometers away?"
"You won't be needing that." I jumped to get the bottle and wine glasses I got from the cellar. I handed one glass at her and opened the cork.
"You're not the only one who will have a first tonight." I smiled and hid my shyness. Was it abnormal that I haven't been in a real date before?
"First what?" she asked and sat on the hood of the car.
I imitated her and leaned my back on the front window. I gave her the bottle and let her read the label.
"Josh's first date." She poured another glass. "You never been in any dates?"
I nodded and tasted the wine. "Besides my friends' attempts to give me blind dates that never became successful, yes, technically this is my first date."
"Sorry, I didn't know. If I knew I wouldn't ask for this."
"Nothing's wrong." I assured her.
"Well, you'll remember your first date always everytime you'll have a date. I guess I shouldn't be the one you should remember all your life."
"We're the same actually. This is your first time to drink, you'll remember me."
She shook her head and tucked the lose strands of her hair in her ears. "But dates are different. It's like first kiss."
First kiss. I sighed and stared at the stars; they seemed more than what I saw earlier. "Why? Do you always remember your first kiss and first date?"
She looked at me and smiled. "Let's have a deal."
First dares, now, deals, what's next? "Huh?"
"Let's make a deal that we would answer every question we will throw at each other tonight, honestly and truthfully. No matter how personal or sensitive the topic would be."
"Okay," I said and repeated the question.
"My first date and first kiss is non-other than Rick Raymond." She said it like Rick should get his prize. "Yeah, I remembered him, all the time. It was hard, you know? It was hard to forget someone you loved truthfully. Our first date was in the rooftop of the school. He prepared it with balloons and petals. In the middle of the skygarden, there were food and drinks for the two of us. It was where our first kiss happened too. I wouldn't forget how the world stopped and my heart beat unusually."
"Why did you break up?" I asked because they sounded like they love each other very much then.
"We were together for several months, but since he got busy with basketball training and quiz bee competitions, he said it was better for us to split up for a while. That 'a while' meant longer than I expected. But he said he loved me that's why he did that. He said that I would meet someone who would love me more than he did, someone who would love me fully." A tear escaped from the side of her eyes, she barked a light laughed. "Wait, you cheated! It was my turn to ask."
"What's your question?"
"Hmm, let me think for a while..." I let her think. Silence was our friend at that time, and the stars and the moon became our companion. "What was your problem with your parents?"
I didn't know she knew it, but I spilled it out. "It wasn't really a problem, but it was something I held against them. My parents have a company, a pharmacy."
"That explained PharmaSilva."
"Yes, my grandfather established it and my parents managed it after he died. Since I was a kid, my mother pushed me in the field of medicine. And taking the freedom of a child to choose which course he or she will take for college was something I hated." I paused and asked a another question. "What is the story behind your ring?"
She reached and touched it. "This one? It was my father's gift. It was a covenant that he would be there with me every single moment of everyday." She paused to coughed.
"Where is he now?" I couldn't help but ask. I forgot it wasn't my turn yet.
"You know the Love Cup? The coffee shop near our school? It was my parents'." I was shocked to hear that. After all this time it was theirs. "My mother told me that my father was the best baker in town as well as the best coffee mixer. Before my brothers were born, they built the coffee shop and then we came and we lived happily. But happily ever after wasn't the ending, when I was ten, my father was diagnosed stage four of heart cancer." She wiped her tears using my gray handkerchief. "It was crazy how I found out. Asaila was saying notes of our class over the phone. My mother's bag was on the couch near the telephone so I searched for paper and pen. Too bad I opened the wrong envelope and saw medical results. I didn't read medical language that good, but I saw my father's name and a science term I just studied in Health class at that time. I suffered months hiding to them that I knew about it. I was afraid that if I told them they would confirm it was true." She wiped her face again, preventing her sob by biting her lip. "I kept on thinking it was just a mistake. A way of hiding a surprise birthday party." She laughed without humor, "That was how kids think, right? What kids want to believe. Especially when I found out that my brothers knew nothing. Eventually, they admitted it and did everything to cure my father. My mother even sold their dream coffee shop to gather enough money for my father's operation. But a year after, he passed away. Exactly on the day of my eleventh birthday."
My instincts forced me to touch her arms. I did and wished it help a little.
"So, going back," she smiled and drank another wine. "I don't know what to ask, but here: are you..." she laughed even before finishing the question. "Are you a virgin?"
My face heated in her question. I wasn't expecting that. "Yes."
"Not even a kiss?" She smiled maliciously like it was something to tease me later.
"I had my first kiss." I admitted. "It was a little embarrassing because unlike yours, it wasn't special. There wasn't really anything to remember."
"Why? Did you have amnesia after?"
I tried to pull in all the memories I remembered at that night, but nothing. Same amount as before. "It was like watching a Restricted movie. All blurred. I just knew it was when I was fourteen and it was my first time to go to a party with Fredd. It was also my first time to drink alcohol, that's why I think I drank too much. Then a girl came, I didn't even know her name. Something like Katherine? I didn't know. That was all I knew. I even forgot her face."
She giggled. "You got drunk and kissed a random girl? That's very irresponsible, Josh." I wasn't sure but I guessed it was the first time she called me Josh. I also wasn't sure why I figured it out. The alcohol was affecting my thoughts now.
"Yes, thanks for the compliment." I said. "And last week, Nicole actually kissed my cheek, but I guess it wasn't counted."
"If you didn't kiss her back, it's not counted."
"I didn't! She simply invited me to her party and kissed me goodbye. I wasn't even expecting it," I explained.
"Okay, let's just hope our second kiss will be better. Something worth keeping than our first." She raised her glass. "To our next first kiss?"
"Next first kiss?" I thought I heard her wrong.
"Yes, first are special. And I guess if that person matters more than the real first, it will be worth more than the first. Here, let's pray to God that whoever our next kiss would be, would be the person we'll love in this lifetime. Even after that." She smiled and raised her glass again. "To our next first kiss?"
I took it as a sign for a cheer. "To our next first kiss." And while I drank, I did pray that my next first kiss will be the right person I would spend the rest of my life with. Prayers do come true, right? That's what I held on.
"Ask me," she ordered.
My head started to get fuzzy. "Are you... virgin?" I asked back.
"What do you think?" She refilled her glass. "Yes, I am. As always, I want my first to be special."
"Why do first become special if there will be second, third, fourth?"
She put the glass down and flattened her hands on her stomach. "They just were. Deal with it."
"Oh, I almost forgot." I straightened my sit to reached for the necklace band in the bottom of my pocket. "Give me your ring." She registered what I was about to do before placing it on my opened palm. "I found this in my room after I get that wine. I don't wear necklace, I think you would need it so that the ring won't fall off again." I put it on her neck and fixed her hair.
"Thanks, I will return it after I bought my own."
"Take your time, I don't need it."
"Thanks, Joshua. Again." She sipped the final drop of wine in her glass. "This tasted sweet instead of bitter." She lighten the bottle using her phone to read the labels and ingredients. "A gold label from..." she searched for the year it was produced. "1989! Is this real? How could you just let me drink this vintage fortune? It worth more than ten thousand pesos!"
I read the writings of the bottle. It was from 1989, the reason of the sweetness. I told her about the different wines my parents told me to drink when I reached a limestone in life.
"Your parents seem cool people."
"They are, but they just lose time to spend with us."
She went back to our Q and A, "You said you didn't like Medicine, what do you want to be?"
"I don't hate Medicine. I just don't like being forced to do something against my will," I clarified.
"You really fight for what you believe in, huh?" She smirked. "What if you're wrong?"
"If I am wrong? I guess I just need enough proof that I am and I can lower my pride to change my errors. But it wasn't an easy job. I really had to be sure I was wrong before I change my side."
"So your course?" She went back to the question she gave me.
"If a force great enough to push me in Medicine, I will grab it fully." I said. "I wasn't really sure what I want. Less than a year from now we will graduate highschool, but I still didn't know what course to take for college. You?"
"Me?" she stared above. "I'd like to become a professional photographer or a preschool teacher. I love photography and kids, I never had a younger sibling."
"I envy you for having a concrete future."
"You're wrong, Josh. I should be the one who should be jealous of you for so many things." She glanced at me. "Even concrete barriers can be destroyed to dust."
"Let it be done on to us according to His word," I said what my father always said before. Let it be done on to me according to Your word.I guessed it was from some of his religious meetings since he was from a seminary once.
"Preach, brother Joshua." She raised her hands.
We fell silent just watching the stars, gazing upon its beauty.
"A shooting star!" She pointed to the twinkling lights that moved on the dark starry night above us.
"It is an airplane!" I laughed. "A shooting star moved thousand Lightyears per second, that's trillion or more miles per second. It's impossible to see one unprepared. It will be gone even before you noticed it was a shooting star."
"Don't Science-talk me, Joshua, I know about that. Just don't mess with my imagination, I'm busy thinking of a wish."
I let her with her imagination. I watched as the airplane passed infront of the moon. Maybe these are what Thonia wanted to capture.
It was dazzling to see nature's masterpiece. It was a reminder that things that will make us happy were just near us, just around us, just beside us.
I pretended that that airplane was a real shooting star and I had one wish. I closed my eyes and thought about it.
A wish...
My wish to that shooting star was to have a future as beautiful as these shimmering stars above us...
That goes for me, Thonia, and all the people special to me.