Chapter Fourteen #3
“Sure. Did you know that black holes can cause spaghettification?”
“No, I did not know that. What’s spaghettification?” Harper asked.
“It’s what happens if you fall into a stellar-size black hole, your feet would be sucked in more than your head would be, stretching you out like spaghetti.”
Harper winced. “Sounds painful.”
Kash giggled, sounding more like the boy he still was, rather than the boy on the cusp of manhood who’d proudly thanked her for doing what any other mother should do.
He then proceeded to tell her more facts about black holes.
Then he moved on to nebulas. And dark matter.
It never ceased to amaze Harper how smart her son was.
How excited he could get about astronomy.
She loved that for him. That he’d found his passion at such a young age.
She still wasn’t sure what her passion was. Besides Kash.
For the last twelve years, every decision she’d made had been based on what was good for her son.
What would disrupt his life the least. What he needed to thrive.
And for the first time, Harper felt proud of what she’d done.
How she’d raised Kash by herself to be the kindhearted, too-smart-for-his-own-good kid he was today.
By the time they pulled into the parking area for the Blueberry Pond Observatory, Kash was practically vibrating. Harper felt kind of sorry for whoever would be their tour leader. He, or she, would have their hands full. Kash would test their knowledge of the skies for sure.
Three hours later, Harper was back in the car with one happy little boy. He was staring down at a picture in awe. As if he still couldn’t believe he was holding it. That he’d seen it with his own eyes.
“This is the best night of my life,” Kash said quietly, once they were on their way again.
It was fully dark outside now, and Harper had already called Linc to let him know they were on their way.
He’d told her to drive safely and that he’d be waiting to hear all about their day when they got home.
He added that the house seemed way too empty without them in it tonight, and next time he wanted to go with them.
It wasn’t a stretch for him to think they’d be coming back. If Kash had his way, they’d return to the observatory tomorrow. And the next night. And the next. She had a feeling this was what he’d be requesting for birthdays and Christmases for years to come.
“Mom. This is amazing. You saw it, right? The M20 Trifid Nebula. It’s in the constellation Sagittarius.”
“That’s the archer, right?” Harper asked, vaguely remembering their guide mentioning that when Kash had gotten overly excited at seeing it through the camera.
“Uh-huh. It’s over six thousand, seven hundred light-years away . . . and we can see it today! I mean, I can see it with the telescope Linc got me, but not like I could with the one tonight. Isn’t this cool?”
“It is cool,” Harper agreed. To her, the picture just looked like a gray smudge on a paper with lots of white dots, but to her son it was pure gold.
She loved that she’d been able to share tonight with him.
Seeing his focus on the guide as she spoke, and how intensely he concentrated when he looked through the telescope and cameras, made it all the more obvious this was what Kash was meant to do.
She had no doubt he’d be a famous scientist someday.
Well, famous in his own field. Famous was relative, and even though she couldn’t name one astronomer, she was well aware there were plenty of men and women out there who’d discovered amazing and one-of-a-kind things in the sky.
Her son would be one of those people. Of that she was certain.
It took an hour, but he finally fell asleep around Damariscotta. The car had always put him to sleep, and even at twelve it was no exception. He held the picture close to his chest as he snoozed, and Harper sighed as silence filled the car.
As scary as the nights had been when the two of them slept in this very minivan in New York, there was also something especially intimate about them.
They’d bonded in a way not many mothers and sons ever could.
Being with him now, watching over him while he slept, brought back plenty of memories. Both good and bad.
When she pulled into the driveway at Linc’s house, the door to the garage was already open, and Linc was standing at the doorway of his home.
Harper gently shook Kash awake, and he stumbled out of the car and headed toward the house.
Harper grabbed the bag with the posters she’d bought him of other pictures taken at the observatory.
When she caught up to Kash at the door, he was talking a mile a minute, telling Linc all about his experience and showing him the picture of the nebula. Harper had already forgotten the name of it.
Linc listened patiently with a smile on his face. He didn’t look away from Kash as he spoke, but held out his arm toward Harper. She went to his side and leaned into him as he draped his arm around her shoulders.
“How about we go inside and talk about it, Bud. It’s cold out here.”
Kash nodded and walked as he continued to tell Linc everything he could about the night. Twenty minutes later, when he took a breath, Linc interrupted him and told him it was late, and he needed to get to bed since he had school in the morning.
He probably could’ve talked all night, but he didn’t even complain.
Simply nodded and said, “I’ll tell you all about the M57 Ring Nebula we saw tomorrow.
It was so cool!” He grabbed the bag of posters Harper had leaned against the stairs.
But after going up two steps, he turned and said, “Oh, and the pizza was the bomb! We’ll have to stop there again next time we go through town so you can try it too!
” Then he ran the rest of the way up the stairs.
“Posters tomorrow,” Harper called up after him. “Not tonight.”
“Okay, Mom!”
Harper looked at Linc with a sheepish grin.
“Sounds like he had the time of his life.”
“I love watching him get so excited about the things he enjoys. Why anyone would want him to be anything other than who he is, I can’t imagine.”
“You talking about your dad? Or the bullies at school?” Linc asked with canny insight.
“Both. Although my dad has gotten a lot better about nagging him to get involved in sports.”
“You had a good talk with him about school?”
Linc knew she’d planned to see if she could get Kash to open up a little more about what was going on at school with the bullies.
“I don’t know that I’d say it was good, but I do feel a little better about it.
Kash said Donny and Ginger broke up, and that for now, at least some of Donny’s attention is on winning her back.
Which is something, I suppose. He’s also looking forward to him graduating and being gone by the time Kash joins the high school. ”
“Sounds as if he’s taking things in stride.”
“I guess.” Harper turned to Linc and dropped her face into the place where his shoulder met his neck.
“Karma sucks. I never spent time thinking about how you and the others we made fun of must have felt. All I knew was that it made me feel better to be part of some stupid clique. I didn’t want to rock the boat with my friends and speak out against what we were doing.
I was a horrible person, and my son is paying for it today. ”
“Shhhh,” Linc soothed, running a hand over the back of her head.
She appreciated that he didn’t minimize what she’d done. That he didn’t insist she hadn’t been that bad. Because she’d been a terror.
“And you should know, I talked to Kash about how I was . . . what I did to you.”
“Wow. And? How’d he take it? Are you two . . . okay?”
Figured Linc would be more worried about the relationship between her and Kash, and not about whether her son would look at him differently for being bullied by his mom.
“He was surprisingly cool about it. Totally let me off the hook, which is crazy, considering his school life is being made so miserable by bullies.”
Linc took her face in his hands and gently tilted her head up so he could look into her eyes.
“He’s a good kid. And smart. Too smart to let Donny and Ginger and whoever else get to him. He has the ability to let that shit run off his shoulders and not affect him. And you’re his mom. He loves you, as do I, so it’s easy for him to forgive you just like I have. You want to know why?”
“Why?” Harper whispered, gripping his sides.
“Because he knows what’s important in life.
Food, shelter, love. He knows without a doubt that you love him and will do anything for him.
That I will. That he has my brothers. He has a whole tribe behind him now, and the self-confidence in him has risen tenfold since Lobster Fest and winning the crate race.
He’s coming into his own, and I can see it in him.
He doesn’t give a shit what others think.
He’s gonna do what he loves and to hell with everyone else. ”
“You had your brothers behind you, and I still made your life miserable,” Harper couldn’t help but point out.
“Kash isn’t me. I didn’t have half the brain your son does.”
“He purposely didn’t answer questions on his Spanish test to throw the curve, so the rest of the class wouldn’t be mad at him,” Harper blurted.