Thud! Thud! Thud!
A young woman forcefully thrusts open the rolling steel doors—a metal screech signaling her entrance to the planetarium. As the fluorescent lights beamed throughout the building, a gale of solitude passed her by. Indeed, she had burrowed into her routine and could no longer escape.
She hastily set up all the necessary equipment before the first tour of the day. Minutes after, her colleagues began to trickle in. “Thank God, finally some company...” she breathed some relief into herself.
Tiring as it may seem, she still plastered on a velcro smile as she welcomed the first group on her list, varying from teenagers to adults whom she would chaperone for the rest of the day.
The silhouette of the constellations dotting the dome ceiling above reminded her of star-crossed destiny—a destiny that was once favorable to her. She dismissed the thought of her attachment to these artificial cosmos and continued reciting memorized trivia.
“For stargazers, the twinkling lights serve as their counsels on matters of the heart. But as the celestial world finds its own language, either your fate lies between a love written in stars or—“
“Star-crossed lovers”
She abruptly paused and looked around for the owner of the interrupting voice. From afar, stood a lean man whose steady gaze brought shivers to her heart.
He looks and sounds like him. The chances... her chest pounded. But she shrugged off this impression, knowing in her heart that he is just a mere memory now. Though she did feel a comforting warmth whenever tourists commended her intriguing monologues on astrology, and that day was one of those days.
As she shut off the lights in the planetarium proper, she tilted her head at Big Dipper above her. Lifting her finger in the air, she began tracing the constellation until she felt a warm grip on her hand.
“After all this time, you still haven’t forgotten.”
The familiar texture of the skin and the soft breath from his voice sent tremors throughout her body. She turned around, her heart sank to her stomach. How long has it been since...?
A million other things could’ve happened that night, but alas, the stars have brought them together here. The rhythm of their footsteps slowly began to synchronize as they walked along the crooked sidewalk on the way to her apartment. The deafening silence between them slowly ate her up; her hands tightly latched to her bag until her knuckles turned white.
“I see you’re still working at the planetarium,” he said softly.
Questions such as “Why did you show up?” ran rampant in her mind, but all she could muster was a nod in response. His hair, still disheveled; his face, scratched up from his work; his shirt, unironed with a conspicuous stain on the side. There was no mistaking it—this was him.
It crossed her mind that maybe the universe had rearranged the heavens just for this moment. If that was the case, there was no time to spare.
“Don’t worry,” she assured him as she lowered her head, “things are different now, no one’s bothering me.”
He suddenly stopped in his tracks and gave her that look: furrowed brows paired a soft gaze that seemingly contradicted the expression. Knowing that he could never win an argument with her past, he shot her a hearty smile and they continued walking.
The dead air trailed along their shadows until they both stopped in front of the house with a rusted mailbox standing atop a withered yard. The woman felt a wave of relief wash over her, she couldn’t bear walking upright any further since her right leg was on pins and needles. She groaned to herself hoping he wouldn’t notice, to little success.
“I want you to remember that it wasn’t your fault,” he muttered softly, “please save yourself from me, don’t live a regretful life.” Her back was turned to him as she walked down the unkempt stone path toward the porch.
“I can’t promise that but—” She brought her thoughts to a halt when she turned around, he was no longer there.
She let out a deep sigh as she fiddled with her keys to unlock the front door. A mid-sized cork board regularly welcomed her, pinned with numerous cut-out gray-ish papers, leaving a powdery inked substance as she ran her fingertips across it. She stood and stared for a few minutes, tearing up as she re-reads the plastered headlines over and over.
CAR ACCIDENT ALONG THE MAIN INTERSECTION
COUPLE CAUGHT IN A CAR ACCIDENT. MAN DEAD, WOMAN SURVIVES
