章 2: Meteor Shower
Hope went running to open the door. After a minute a tanned blonde guy came to the backyard.
"Hey Spence, it's been a while."
"Hey G, not that much, we met for Rose's birthday 2 weeks ago."
"Yeah… but I called and told you to come over a lot of times since that."
"Your A/C sucks, and I also invited you over."
"Hey! I repaired that A/C myself, it's working now, and I'm pretty sure that you are overloading yours, it will break soon."
I fell silent at that word and when G noticed he smiled.
"Your A/C broke not too long ago, right?"
…
"Maybe"
"I take a look later to see if I can fix it."
"You are our savior."
"Nice job with the mustache BTW I can' believe she didn't notice she went to answer the door with it."
"It was revenge."
"I figured out that much."
Gerhard and Rose have been our friends since… well always.
From what my mom told us Gerhard and I started playing in a nearby park when we were about 3 years old. Since I became friends with Gerhard our moms became close too, so, Hope and Rose started to get used at each other since they were babies.
Hope is a year older, but since Rose is brilliant she was able to skip a grade in primary school, and they were able to go to school together like Gerhard and me.
"Your sis said she wanted to bring some drinks, and Rose went with her to the kitchen."
While we were talking, I finished setting up the telescope, and since Rose was here, I was looking for Leo, her zodiac sign.
Why hers? Because she was probably the only one that was actually interested in this besides me, in this season was difficult to catch, but we might be able to see it anyway. At that time the girls came back, they were giggling about something.
From the door, I could hear a soft voice laughing.
"How come he didn't notice you drank his juice?"
Instead of letting the now mustacheless Hope answer, I went ahead and did it.
"I was watching an interesting interview, and when I was going drink, the glass was empty, and she was sleeping."
I answered Rose, just like her brother, she had blonde hair. But unlike me and hope that was where the similarities end. G had a square and rough face, the kind of look you expect from a marine instructor or something like that.
Rose had fair skin, something you would expect from someone who spends most time inside the house reading or playing than doing outdoor activities. She had a heart shaped face with big eyes. She always uses a ponytail.
"Why did you draw that on my face!!"
"Be thankful that I didn't use a permanent marker. So Rose, are you ready to see one of the most important astronomic discovery in the last decades?" I asked Rose.
Before she could answer Gerhard responded for her.
"Of course, she was so annoying in the afternoon. First, she made me watch that program that made your sister fall to sleep. Then you called, and when she heard "pretty stars," she was begging to come here."
"That's not true!!" Rose's face was flushed.
"You don't want to see?" I asked teasing her.
"That's not what I mean." She looked back at me on the verge of tears.
Hope chooses that moment to help her friend.
"That's enough, both of you should be ashamed for teasing her like that."
Rose looked grateful to her friend for a second, but she was betrayed a second later.
"Don't you see, if she becomes redder it's going to be like a new heat wave here."
Rose became completely red at that point and tried to hide it turning around, while we laugh.
"We are just joking, come here."
I called her so she could see through the telescope. She came with me to the telescope and started watching, she was still red.
"Wow!! It's so clear, ". She totally forgot about us teasing her while seeing the constellation.
"Not really this is not a good time to look at it when I show you others you will notice it."
"Which constellation is it?"
"I'm going to give you a hint, I look for it thinking about you."
She let out a gasp and got redder… o crap that didn't sound as I wanted.
"Hey don't flirt with my sister!"
"I'm not doing that!! I sai that because it's related to her!"
After I said that she looked once again and understood what I meant.
"It's Leo?... oh I can see the lions now?"
"Hope!! G!! Do you guys want to see?".
""Sure.""
Both of them got near and started to look at the constellation trying to see the lions that Rose mentioned.
"So, Rose are you going to college, or going to take a sabbatical like Hope?"
"I got into the mathematics program at your university."
She had a radiant smile on her face.
"That's a good I got a couple of courses there, right now I have to go outside the city for almost everything, third years get to work at the observatory if they are good enough."
She seemed a little dispirited at the mention that I didn't spend that much time in the campus.
"I can go visit you anytime though."
The light came back to her eyes almost instantly when I told her that. After some time, everyone has already seen through the telescope. None of them managed to look at the lions like Rose.
Afterward, I changed the direction, so rose could see another constellation.
"You were right this one are so bright. When does Leo look like this?"
"Around May it's on its peak, I can try to sneak you in the observatory next year if you want."
"Won't you have problems if you do that?"
"Nah I'm pretty close with Dr. Harting, so there should be no problems with it."
She seemed happy at the idea. We all kept talking and teasing each other, Rose was our primary target, also since it didn't take too much time I kept showing constellation or planets to Rose, the others weren't interested at all on them.
Dante was chasing fireflies around the garden, suddenly he stopped running, he moved his ears as if he heard something. He looked up like he was searching for something in the sky until he focused his gaze at a certain point.
I followed his gaze to that part of the night sky.
Now that I think about it there was something unusual about the sky tonight, the number of stars that can be seen is a lot more than the usual. Because of the city lights is difficult to see some of the stars or constellations from here, but today wasn't like that.
I noticed that at the point where Dante was staring was a big star that changed colors regularly.
"Give me the telescope a minute." I took Rose's place and changed the direction it was pointing at, Rose was curious about what I was doing and stood by my side
Hope noticed the cat was looking at something and just like me, she tried to figure out what it was.
"I think it's the comet we were waiting." I could see a rainbow tailed comet slowly moving from right to left.
I moved to give them space to look, I went to the cat and sat down on the grass to pet him, he was nervous for some reason, he cuddled next to me.
I had an ominous feeling.
Something wasn't right.
"It's like a moving rainbow!" Hope took her place in the telescope again, she always liked colorful things, so it was no surprise that she was so surprised.
I kept petting a purring nervous kitten, I looked up again without moving my hand, this time the "rainbow dot" was bigger.
I was thinking how it was possible for it to shine in so many colors. Also, it was amazing the change in size. Everyone saw the comet, and I wanted to look again, I took Dante on my arms and pass him to Hope.
"Dante is scared about the comet, don't leave him alone."
Hope took Dante, and with Rose, both started petting him.
Meanwhile, I focused on the weird behavior of the comet, something wasn't right about it, and after observing for 15 minutes, I understood.
'It's moving faster, and the trajectory is very different from the simulations I saw this afternoon.'
This was the ominous feeling and the reason Dante was so nervous.
'Is this the end?'.
Right now, the comet was clearly visible, and the tail left an aurora borealis, expanding across the night sky, to be honest, it was quite beautiful.
While it was moving through the night sky, the Aurora Borealis already covered a fifth of it.
It sounded like thunder, and little shock wave could be seen. The comet had crashed against an asteroid that for some reason was surrounding the earth too.
I remembered that there was an asteroid from the belt that was affected by the EM field of the comet, it wasn't mentioned in the interview, but that asteroid was now orbiting around the earth.
This made my friend almost s**t his pants. I was already on high alert, so I was ready for it.
"WHAT THE F**K WAS THAT!". A shocked Gerhard asked.
"It crashed."
I tried to sound as calm as possible, but at that moment more shock waves and thunders could be heard, it was like an apocalypse.
The sky was changing colors constantly, far away a meteor could be splitting into multiple pieces and falling into the earth. A lot of explosions thundered across the sky.
All the lights in the city went out, the only thing a could do was try to cover Hope and Rose in my arms and do my best to protect them from the shock wave.
I could feel something pass through me, it was like a soft electroshock from a prank
Despite that feeling not being very strong, it made me faint anyway.
The last thing a remember is seeing all the lights out and the sky with the most beautiful northern light I have ever seen.
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