Atmosphere(26)

Vanessa smiled. “Can I come in?”

Joan opened the door farther, and Vanessa followed her into the room. “What are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you, too.”

Joan raised an eyebrow.

“I just dropped off Donna—she’s drunk as a skunk. I was going to ask you if you’d check on her in the morning.”

“Oh,” Joan said. “Of course I will.”

“I wasn’t even going to stop by. I assumed you’d be asleep, but then I could hear you playing when I passed your door.”

“Is it that loud?”

Vanessa shook her head. “You’d have to be walking by, hoping you were up, to notice.” And then she added, “You are very good, by the way.”

“Oh, thank you,” Joan said. “I just like to play to clear my mind. I’m not anything to write home about.”

“Are you doing that thing where you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m not that good’ and then I have to tell you that you’re great?”

“What? No. I don’t do that. I’m competent at a lot of things and am honest with myself about my talents. But I am an amateur classical pianist. I don’t practice enough to be superlative. I do it because I enjoy it.”

Vanessa hid that smile, the lopsided one.

“What’s so funny?” Joan asked.

“You have a very high standard,” Vanessa said. “That’s all.”

Joan pursed her lips, trying not to frown or smile.

“Anyway, listen—I had a secondary reason for coming over here,” Vanessa said.

“I’m listening.”

“I need . . . I need help with something. And you’re . . . sort of the only person that can help me. I guess I’m asking a favor.”

“Are you . . . nervous?”

“I’m embarrassed,” Vanessa said.

“What on earth is it?”

Vanessa laughed. “It’s actually not on Earth.”

Joan shook her head and smiled.

“I’m not able to orient myself in the night sky as well as some of the others. Lydia can spot every constellation, and she’s incredibly smug about it. But I’m having trouble recognizing them consistently. Especially in a dark sky.”

“Okay, what can you spot?”

“Well, I can find Polaris. And I have a handle on Vega, Deneb, and Altair. So I can always find north and south. But I’d love to feel more confident about the dimmer constellations.”

“Then you’ve come to the right place. Of course I’ll show you.”

“Thank you,” Vanessa said, her eyes warmer than Joan had ever seen them.

“You’re an astronaut who doesn’t recognize most of the stars,” Joan said, “That’s pretty funny.”

“I’m a pilot who applied to NASA because I want to fly out of the atmosphere,” she said. “And I’m willing to learn anything I have to in order to do it.”

“Okay,” Joan said. “I would love to teach you. Tomorrow night. We can head out of the city. I can even bring my telescope.”

“Yeah?” Vanessa said.

“Yeah, it will be fun.”


Joan arrived at Vanessa’s front door one minute before six o’clock. She waited two full minutes to ring the doorbell so that Vanessa could see she was perfectly capable of being late.

Vanessa’s bungalow was painted teal with a red door, a curved archway at her front porch. Joan could hear the doorbell ring inside the house.

Vanessa appeared with a cooler in her hand. She was wearing jeans and a dark gray T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, her hair still a tad wet. In a flash, Joan went from liking the dress and jean jacket she was wearing to feeling mortifyingly overdressed. And why had she never thought to roll her sleeves up like that?

“I made sandwiches and brought us sodas and beers,” Vanessa said, gesturing to the cooler.

“That’s great. Thank you.”

“Well,” she said. “I like to pull my own weight. Thank you for helping me.”

Joan waved her off. “It’s a good excuse to do a little stargazing myself. I don’t make time for it as often as I’d like. So, really, you’re doing me a favor, too. Keeping me company.”

Joan started walking to her Volkswagen, but Vanessa stopped her. “We can take my car,” she said. “You can just tell me where we’re going.”

“You’re sure? It’s a bit of a drive.”

“It will be nice,” Vanessa said. “Wait here, I’ll pull out of the garage.”

Joan grabbed her binoculars, telescope, and blanket out of the back of her car and then stood on the lawn and looked up at the sky as the sun began to set. It would be a good night to take a little sky tour around Hercules.

Vanessa backed out of the driveway in a cream convertible with a red interior.

“Wow,” Joan said, putting her things in the back.

Vanessa laughed. “I like cars.”

Joan opened the car door and got in. “It’s nice.”

Vanessa pulled away from the curb. “Where are we going?”

“Brazos Bend.”

“I don’t know it.”

“It’s far outside of town. But the view is incredible. Turn left here—we’re going to head to 288.”