Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
We pull into a mostly empty parking lot.
River parks next to us. Once again, I feel awkward and conspicuous being the only other person to climb out of Crispin’s car.
Why can’t I get over this? What is it about this that makes me feel like a spotlight is trained on me?
Maybe it’s the sly glance from Sally as she grabs River’s hand.
Or perhaps the longing expression Brook tries to mask when she falls into step beside us.
I’ve shoved my hands into my pockets even though it’s significantly warmer here compared to being right on the ocean.
I probably don’t even need my hoodie anymore.
I clench my fists to keep myself from pulling the hood up and burying my face within its shadows.
Crispin leads us around to a side entrance that he performs a complicated knock upon. The door swings open and a beautiful young woman beams out at us. She’s dressed in a polo shirt with the observatory logo on the pocket and khaki pants.
“Right on time, as usual, Crispin.”
She has a charming Australian accent to go along with her cascade of thick blonde hair and mile-long legs. I can picture her in a neon-yellow, G-string bikini playing slow-motion volleyball on a sunny beach.
“I thought you said you know a guy,” I mumble, not actually expecting him to hear me or respond. But he smirks at me over his shoulder as he goes in for a hug with the cover model.
“Zena, it’s lovely to see you again. How’s Everett?”
“He’s still in denial that he’s too old to be your double.”
Crispin turns to us with a genuine smile brightening his face. I’m pretty sure I hear a collective gasp from all of us. “Everybody, this is Zena. She’ll be our tour guide tonight. Her husband, Everett, used to be my stunt double.”
“Until he gained too much weight and got a little saggy around the middle.”
I frown. How old is he? She doesn’t look older than twenty-five. Regardless, I’m a little too relieved to know she’s married.
“Zena, that’s Brook, River–clearly related if you can’t tell from their names—and my current fake girlfriend, Sally, who is actually dating River. And this here is my fake girlfriend’s fake little sister, who is actually older than her fake big sister.”
Sally laughs. “And if you followed all that, I’ll be beyond impressed.”
“Easy!” Zena points between River and Brook. “Brother and sister team. Brother dates you. You play Crispin’s girlfriend, and she plays your little sister.” Zena points to me.
“Wow. I live it and I’m not sure that’s what I understood from Crispin’s description,” I say.
She waves a hand. “Aw, heck, I’ve been around the business forever. Everett and I got married young. He used to sneak me onto the sets. I thought it was super cool. That’s how I met this dolt.” She slaps a hand onto Crispin’s back.
“Hey, I resemble that remark.”
“Let’s see if we can shove some knowledge into that empty head of yours and learn about the planets. Let’s start in the planetarium so they can get out of here.”
“You guys are too good to me.”
Zena narrows her eyes. “You’re literally paying them to be here.”
“Crispin!” Sally whines. “What the heck?”
Crispin mumbles, “Thanks for outing me.”
Zena shrugs, spins on her heel, making her long hair swing attractively, and strides away.
Crispin reaches out a hand toward me and then, at the last minute, awkwardly waves for us to follow. “Come on, everybody. Here we go,” he says in a high, squeaky voice that makes me chuckle.
I blink at the bright lights of a clinical hallway that seems to be used by employees. Zena holds a door open for us. “Take any seats you want.”
We enter a cozy auditorium with soft lighting and a ring of seating all the way around the room. I choose a seat on an aisle. Crispin sits next to me. Sally and River have gone across the aisle and further back, while Brook settles alone a few rows behind us. The seats are cushy and tip back.
When the room goes dark, a field of stars slowly appears along the curved ceiling, though I can’t see the ceiling anymore in the dark.
It’s disorienting in the best way. I’m immediately enraptured, my gaze scanning the night sky above us.
But the chairs are so comfortable and the room so dark, I’m worried I’ll nod off.
Luckily, the presentation keeps me fully engaged by talking about star clusters and black holes, and discussing the search for signs of life and other space exploration. I’m almost heartbroken when it’s over.
“That was so cool!” I breathe as the lights come up.
Crispin grins. “You liked it?”
“I loved it. I had no idea we were actively looking for life out in the universe. That seems so science fiction-y to me.”
“Okay.” Zena steps into the center of the room. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to the telescopes and we’ll do some exploration of our own.”
My eyes probably look like saucers when I look excitedly at Crispin. “We get to look through telescopes, too?”
“What’s an observatory without some observation?” He laughs and steers me out of our row with a light hand on my back, which sends shivers up and down my entire body.
As we approach the door, Crispin peels to the right and knocks on a door I hadn’t even seen because it blends in with the wall so well.
The door cracks open, and I hear excited greetings from within.
I see Crispin lean in to shake hands with a couple of people, but I can’t see anything beyond that until Crispin lifts some money from his wallet to hand to each of them.
Though I know the payment was agreed upon beforehand, I suspect Crispin might have been more generous than originally negotiated, because I hear excited responses before I step out the door Zena holds open and into the darkened lobby outside the planetarium.
“Man, that was amazing,” Sally says.
“That was so cool,” Brook gushes. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
I raise my brows. “Does the night sky in the planetarium look like the night sky over the ocean?”
River nods. “Different constellations, since the planetarium mimics our night sky and we’re so much further north than, say, when we sailed around the Philippines.”
“Wait, there are different constellations over the Philippines?” I ask.
Zena cocks her head and studies River. “Did you sail in the Southern Hemisphere?”
He nods. “We sailed around the tip of Africa, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea.” He looks at me. “There are different constellations in the Southern Hemisphere, like the Southern Cross, Centaurus, and Carina.”
“You mean the sky looks different?”
Brook nods. “It was weird at first not to see the Big Dipper or Orion’s Belt. But then you get used to it. My favorite was when we were close enough to the equator to see a little of both.”
“Oh man, now I really want to go south of the equator,” I say.
“How come you never mentioned you saw an entirely different night sky?” Sally asks River.
He shrugs, looking a little panicked.
Sally giggles and squeezes his hand. “You must have endless experiences you don’t think to share because they just became normal for you.”
“Yeah.” River and Brook share a knowing look. “That’s exactly it.”
“Coming up here and seeing the Big Dipper is what inspired me to learn more about stars, as a matter of fact,” Zena says. “I knew there were different constellations but never thought what it would be like to look up and not see the same sky you were used to. Completely changed my life.”
Crispin strides into the lobby. “What did I miss?”
“I’m learning I’m star-ignorant,” I say.
Crispin narrows his eyes. “No one can match wits with Sally, if that’s what you’re trying to do. She’s a celebrity expert.”
I laugh. “No, not those stars. Those.” I point my finger upward. “The ones we came here to see.”
Zena claps. “Let’s remedy that. Follow me.”
As Crispin falls into step beside me, I shove my hands into my pockets as if he might decide to grab one. As if. My thoughts feel conspicuous, so I yammer. “This is really generous of you. Paying those guys to stay so we get a private show. Thank you for doing this.”
He runs his fingers through his bangs, trying to direct them out of his eyes, but they are just too long and flop forward again as he smiles down at me. “Well, it’s totally selfish. If I want to enjoy myself—heck, if I want to hear the presentation—I have to arrange for these after-hours visits.”
“Do you do this sort of thing often?”
“Not really, no. I don’t really go out much, actually.”
I frown. “Then how are there always paparazzi photos of you leaving restaurants or clubs?”
“That’s part of the job. The image as the single teen heartthrob that my agent is always trying to cultivate.”
“Oh, I feel bad for you having to go out dancing with hot models to keep up your image.”
He does a double-take at my sarcastic attitude. “You should. It’s inconvenient as all get out to have to work those outings into my schedule. I’m more of a pizza and movie at home guy. But that doesn’t draw the tabloids.”
I’m dubious that Crispin is telling the truth; however, Zena has climbed atop a set of steps that lead to the viewfinder of a huge telescope, so I turn my attention to her.
She waits for us to gather around. A section of the domed ceiling is open, and the telescope points directly toward the sky beyond.
Zena gives us general instructions on how to look through the telescope and then says that this particular scope is currently looking at Saturn.
She invites us up, and I don’t waste any time.
I climb. Leaning over the eyepiece, I adjust myself until I can see.
I’m so startled by what I see that I straighten and check the end of the telescope, expecting to see that someone had played a joke on me and taped a paper cutout of Saturn to the end of the scope.
“Is that real?” I ask.
“The planet?” At my nod, she chuckles. “Yes, it’s real.”
“Well, it looks fake.” I bend over and find the view again. “Why is it in black and white? Doesn’t this telescope have color?”
Zena laughs. “It’s a combination of things. The atmosphere, how the light of the rings reflects, our limited vision.”
I see Sally standing on tiptoes as if that will help her to see from the floor. I climb down the stairs to give her a view. “It totally looks fake.”
Sally giggles when she sees it. “It really does, Ari. You’re right. Oh my gosh, that’s so cool, though.”
Brook climbs up next, followed by her brother and then Crispin.
When we have all seen Saturn, Zena repositions the scope until it’s looking at a star cluster.
We cycle through in the same order as before, but I don’t really understand what I’m looking at.
Still, it’s really cool to look at a bunch of stars that are supposedly light-years away and could even already be dead now, but we’re only just now seeing their light.
The universe is crazy huge. I had no idea.
Zena shows off several other celestial things, moving the huge scope, opening new sections of the roof and closing the other sections. When she’s exhausted her repertoire, I find I’m pretty exhausted too. I turn away as I stifle a yawn, but I suspect Crispin sees me.
“We have an early shoot, we should get going,” he says. He gives Zena a hug. “Thank you so much for doing this. It was fantastic.”
“Oh my gosh, my favorite thing about California so far,” Sally says.
“I’ve stared up at the night sky countless times, marveling at the vastness,” Brook says. “I’m almost glad I didn’t understand just how vast it was at the time.”
River nods. “Talk about feeling insignificant. We already felt miniscule in comparison to the never-ending ocean. Now, seeing how deep the universe extends.” He shakes his head. “Mind-blowing.”
Crispin is suddenly next to me. When he speaks, his voice is pitched low. Only for me. “Did you enjoy yourself, Ari?”
A shiver runs through me at his voice. I nod enthusiastically. “I completely agree with all those assessments. That was mind-blowing.”
He nods, looking pleased. “I’m glad.”
Zena escorts us to the front doors and bids us farewell. As we walk across the parking lot toward our cars, Sally slides up next to me and whispers. “I can’t believe my fake boyfriend has a crush on my fake little sister. Whatever will I do?”
I narrow my eyes at her. “That’s not…what are you even talking about?”
She grins and waggles her brows before skipping over to her real boyfriend and grabbing his hand.