Jehssyca F.
“Not tonight,
baby”.
“Why?”
“Just look at
the stars”.
“What the deal
with the stars?”
“They are so
beautiful tonight”.
“Yes, they are.
And you look awesome as well”.
“Thanks. But let
me go”.
“Ok, sorry. So
tonight you want to look at the stars”.
“Yep”.
“Ok, let’s do it”.
“Look at them.
What do you see there?”
“I see how small
we are in this immensity. How lost we look”.
“You sound like
you’re in love. ‘Small’, ‘immensity’ and ‘lost’ are passionate vocabulary”.
“I can’t help
it. It’s Saturday night, I’m on a roof, looking at the stars with you. Give me
a break”.
“Ain’t gonna
work out tonight, baby. Let me go”.
“Okay. So you
called me here only to make me look at the stars?”
“Otherwise you
wouldn’t do so. Would you?”
“No”.
“So unpathetic”.
“I’m sorry. I
have other feelings for you tonight”.
“You can hold
them for you. Tonight it’s me and the stars”.
“Wow. So what do
I do? Should I just sit down here and watch you watching stars?”
“If you want to,
at ease”.
“Ok, I got it. I’m in trouble. Tell me, what did I do?”
“Nothing. Just
there are a lot of stars up there and you’re worried about physical matters.
Shame on you, boy”.
“Stars are
physical things”.
“They are
distant things too. I start liking it about them”.
“You don’t need
to be rude. I just came here to have a great time with you and now you’re just
bypassing me. I start thinking that it wasn’t that good coming here today. If
you didn’t want my company, you just had to tell me”.
She looks him
deeply.
“Hey. Don’t
leave. I’m sorry, dear. I think I didn’t make my point. You’re right, it was
rude. Just sit down here with me. Hold me now like this”.
“I definitely
give up on trying figuring you out”.
“You should
never have tried to do so. Hmm, do you remember when I asked you what you saw
when we looked up to the skies?”
“Of course. You told
me I was in love”.
“Yah. And you
justified your obsession with carnal matters by reminding the fact that today
is Saturday and you’re on a roof”.
“Ok, I must
confess that our conversation tonight lacks for some coherence. But it’s you…
so I’m accustomed with that”.
“Ha-ha. I’m
serious. Look at the stars”.
“Oh, she’s
serious now. But we are still on the roof looking at stars instead of being on
the bedroom, making…”
“Focus, man!
What do you see up there?”
“A lot of stars”.
“OOOOWNT. Wrong
answer. Look at my finger. What do you see now?”
“Your ring”.
“Come on, man.
Don’t make me take back to the ‘rude’ phase of this conversation”
“Oh, yeah. We
left it behind. We don’t want it to come back. Ok, let me think… what I see…
I’m sorry. I just see a lot of stars”.
“Are you sure? I
don’t want to just give that away to you”.
“I’m totally
sure. I give up”.
“There, man. Up
those buildings. There’s a constellation”.
“‘A
constellation’. I said ‘a lot of stars’ and you said my answer was wrong.
Greetings, coherence”.
“‘A lot of
stars’ is not a constellation. Look more carefully. What does it look like for
you?”
“If I say ‘a lot
of stars’ again, what does happen to my chances of come down with you to the
bedroom still tonight?”
“You loser. Look
carefully. Doesn’t it look like a human figure to you? Doesn’t it resemble a
woman sitting down in an upside-down throne?”
“Oh, of course.
A woman sitting down in an upside-down throne. It makes all the sense. I can
see the color of her pantyhose”.
“Hey, that’s
serious. Ancient Greeks had a legend for her”.
“Tell me about
it, darling”.
“The name of
that constellation is based on the history of an Ethiopian queen known by her
vanity. She thought herself was more beautiful than the water nymphs, the
daughters of Poseidon, the god of the seas, and he punished her. He made her a
constellation at the sky, sitting on her throne… but upside-down. It’s her punition for her vanity”.
“Cool”.
“Won’t you ask
the name of the queen?”
“Oh, yah. What’s
the name of the queen?”
“Her name was
Cassiopeia”.
Silence.
“Wow. What a
pity”.
Suddenly she became serious.
“Dan. You’re
gonna be a dad”.
Silence and cold
wind.
“I don’t understand…”
“It’s simple. Let
me put that in another way: we’re gone and through, Dan. It’s over”.
“But…”
“There’s no
discussion, Dan. It’s the only decent thing we can do”.
“How could you know
that?”
“Believe me, a nurse
knows when things like that happen”.
“It can’t be
possible”.
“Actually it
can. And you know that”.
Silence once
again.
“Just go away,
Dan. Come back to your life. You’re disturbed. Just go and think about it a
little. Later you might call me, if you want to”.
Dan left Jess
with the stars. He was totally stunned. So many questions in his head… When?
How? And the higher: why? Was him being punished? Fair enough. He wasn’t being
a good husband. But how could a moment change a whole life? Oh, come on, he
wasn’t fooling anyone. He was an expert at life-changing little moments. Jess
was a proof of it. He was dead, he knew it. Finally his throne had been turned
upside-down. He were about to pay high by his vanity. And he deserved that, he
knew it.
He
was dead.
He
finally reached home. Silence. Dark.
Nobody
in the living room. Empty kitchen.
The
door of his bedroom was half open. He heard a tiny, low female crying.
“Dan, is it
you?”, asked a female voice.
“What left of
him”, he thought. “Yes, it’s me”, he answered out loud.
“Could you come
here?”, the owner of the crying voice said.
“I’m coming”.
He pushes the door.
He looks at his bed.
There she was, a large, strong woman sitting at the edge of
the bed, giving her back to the door. Her trembling shoulders denounce her
crying. When he came in, she turned her wet, dark eyes to him.
“I’m pregnant,
Dan. We’re having a baby”.
He couldn’t stand. He just fell at her feet and began crying
insanely. She played with his dark hair with her long fingers.
“Isn’t it wonderful,
darling?”
He lifted up his head.
“I’m sorry,
dear”.
“There’s no
problem, Dan. Everything’s gonna be alright”.
She knew it all.
She forgave everything.
He also knew it. He went on crying. She was so strong. He
was so weak. She was too good for him.
“If the baby is
a girl”, Dan’s wife said, “her name’s gonna be Queen. Our Queen”.
He crossed his wet look with hers.
“It’s a
wonderful name. I love it”
She held his heavy
head with her hands.
“I love you,
Daniel”.
He couldn’t
stand that anymore.
“I love you too…
Cassiopeia”.
At the same time, at some place of the city, Jess was still
looking at the stars. And at some place, she knew – a god had just punished a
vain woman, and a queen was just born.