June 24th 2015
June woke up that morning ready to roll. Fifteen hours later she was ready to relax. She prepped herself in front of the bathroom mirror, washing her face while staring herself down until the lights in her irises disappeared. She threw herself on top of her bed, over the fluffy cotton comforter that she bought on sale at Target that past weekend, one that had a teal and grey paisley pattern, something like what it looked like when you threw a rock into a pool of water and the ripples cast off into eternity.
She turned on her radio so that she could barely hear it, to her favorite country station. Brad Paisley was on. She lie on her back, facing the ceiling, so that she could look out into the sky through the window that split the right part of the roof in half. The moon was out, it was abnormally big and orange, like an ornament hung in the sky. She could see a few stars out, but she didn’t recognize any constellations. She fell asleep to the lullaby of the night.
She woke up lying close to her friend, Abigail, on a field of grass in the middle of nowhere. To their right was a path lined by streetlights, some taller than others. Above them were bright lights, of different colors: blue, red, and yellow. June sat up in shock. When she sat up she saw in front of her, right on the horizon, planets swirled with purple, green, grey and white.
“Where are we, Abigail?” June shouted out.
“We are where you last saw,” Abigail said with simplicity.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“We are where you last saw. The last thing you saw was the star Rigel. Then you fell asleep. So here we are, on a planet that revolves around the star Rigel. The atmosphere is a bit different than Earth’s….” Abigail said, folding her hands behind her head.
“What are you talking about?” she shouted, looking to all of the planets above her. “How can we be at the last thing that I saw? What does that even mean?”
“Don’t ask me, it’s just how it’s done. You know, perception, and… we can’t hide the universe forever. I had one of these dreams myself the other night. We’ve already been through so much shit together already, you and me…. And when you stared yourself down in the mirror earlier, I knew you would be able to handle the light of Rigel and its solar system.”
A million questions flooded June’s mind. Who gave her the ability to show her this? How did Abigail know that she had stared herself down in the mirror? June managed to murmur a few words to the friend she once associated with school and shopping.
“So… when I wake up tomorrow and ask you about this, we can talk about it? Like normal people?”
“Of course not,” she said, placing her hands on her stomach. “This stuff isn’t for the faint in spirit. Maybe later we could go somewhere else. All you need to know is this: You’ll never really know if this was just a dream….”
June’s eyes opened to a blue sky filled with fluffy clouds. Miranda Lambert was on the radio. June flung her blanket across the bed and ran to the phone. She dialed Abigail’s number and waited for her to pick up. When no one did, she hung up the phone. She ran to her computer and Google searched to see which stars would be out that night.
“I hope Abigail isn’t staying up late tonight,” June said out loud to herself, after seeing the multitude of stars that were to be out that night.