The Astronomer’s Stigma - Chapter 2 When Stars Aligns

A gentle breeze swam through the sunless skies. Night. That’s what it was. It was pleasant, with the glimmering canopy of stars above. And the gently moving moon that was crescent due to the light of the sun, and the shadow casted from such a light.

Her legs kicked back and forth as she sat on a branch of a tall tree that seemed to climb a few stories in height alone. Her hair, brown in hue, seemed to dance with the leaves as the wind drew out a rhythm and a song. A smile plastered on her face as she looked to the sky.

“Hey Andromeda.” Her voice, but a quiet whisper. She spoke to the constellations above. Recounting the amazing legends behind each arrangement of stars. Where, Bootes the Bear Driver chased Ursa Major, the polar bear across the skies. Andromeda and her mother, Casseopia, and father, King Cephus.

So many stories. Many from way long ago. The greeks and the ancients. History forged in such a way that could never be forgotten. For it was the skies that were its canvas. And planets and stars were its ink.

“Hey Joan!” A voice beckoned from below.

The girl in the tree looked down, wide brown eyes quickly tracking the source of the voice. “Yeah mama?”

“Don’t stay up too late now, honey. You have school tomorrow.”

Joan groaned verbally. At which, the mother smiled knowingly. “I don’t want to goooo to school.” Joan’s voice was childish.

The mother gestured for her daughter. In lithe, elegant hops, and twirls, Joan landed on her feet, just a few feet from her mother.

At first the mother took a back in astonishment. Then she sighed with a knowing smile, shaking her head at her daughter. “You’re gonna get yourself hurt one of these days.”

Joan grinned toothily at her mother. “Nah, I think I’ll grow to be the gymnastic queen, and do such amazing flips that everyone will be shocked.”

“Sure, sure.” The mother gave in, but then looked at her daughter in a way. It was that, ‘Time to be serious.’ face. “Now, I know the school is difficult sometimes-”

“It’s not difficult. The homeworks are waay too easy, and the tests are just too simple.” Joan groaned out.

“Yes. But I know that’s not what’s making you upset.” She leveled a learned and knowing gaze at her daughter. “I’m not as blind as you think I am.”

Joan had a pout on her cheeks. “I don’t think you’re blind.. It’s nothing. I’ll go to school, but can I stay out for a few more minutes.”

The mother’s eyes faced her daughter’s earnest eyes and with a shake of her head, she spoke. “What am I going to do with you? You have my brain that can deduce the skies, the stars and the planets. But you have your father’s wondrous and carefree spirit.”

“You can love me! And let me stay a couple more minutes out here!” Joan’s smile spread as she attempted to convince her mother of the need to watch the starry night.

“Fine, fine.. But you better get up on time, alright?” The mother relented with a sigh. Joan instantly started scrambling back up the tree to her secret observation branch. The mother watched in awe, before smiling in pride. And then she went back into the house.

Joan Arche smiled to herself as her eyes took in the nightly expanse. They lived a little bit away from the city, where the light didn’t pollute and distract the eyes from the important things in life. Joan was thirteen years old, and a bright student. So bright, that she actually got into higschool a year early.

Her mother, Elanor Arche, was an astrophysicist renowned for her work. Joan could remember more times than the fingers on her hand when a fan came over for her advice. Or when a fan sent countless repeating letters. Or even when fans spammed her inbox.

Joan thought of them as fans. They always flattered her and wanted to hear more of her advice on countless topics. There was very little different between the idea of fans fawning over an idol and the fans grouping around her mother. At least, that’s how Joan saw it.

She was mom first, and famous person second. And the rest of the family agreed.

Joan’s father, Robert Arche, was a librarian. He always had tales of old and legends of the heroic to share to Joan since she was a small child. As her feet now dangled and swung on the branch, eyes filled to the brim with wanderlust. Tracing stars to stars, recounting the stories that were whispered from her father’s bearded lips.

Draco the dragon who guarded his cave against Cadmus of old. The stars forming the dragons mouth. That memory was fresh on Joan’s mind. She remember her conversation with her father.

“Daddy.. Why did Cadmus make Draco go away? Couldn’t they have just got along?”

Robert’s face ruefully pulled up in a gentle smile before he rearranged little Joan on her lap. “Hmn. I wonder why. What do you think would have happened if they got along?”

Young Joan’s face seemed to look up at Draco’s constellation in thought. Before smiling. “They’d be the bestest nation ever! Caus’ it’s fricking dragon. Who wouldn’t want one as a friend!”

In the memory, Robert just chortled to himself and laughing. “Well, legends say that in honor of his determination to protect his cave, that Zeus placed his constellation somewhere in the sky where he’ll always guard the treasures of Olympus.” As he spoke in his practiced storyteller’s voice, young Joan’s face spread in immersive wonder. “Maybe you’ll get to meet him someday.” Robert spoke with a twinkle in his eye.

“Really!?”

“Really, really.”

The memory began to fade. There was plenty of times just like that. Sitting. Listening as he wove about the tales of old. Joan missed him. It was only a couple years ago when her father was transferred to an old library up in Montana. Which was halfway across the country from where her home was. Treecreek, Oklahoma.

Her father still sent post cards now and then, and he came to visit on the holidays. Joan always felt that there was something that her parents just weren’t telling her. When the two were together, it just seemed to get a little more awkward. But Joan was fine with not knowing, as long as she kept seeing them.

‘Hmn. I should be getting down.’

Soon, Joan began shifting her weight, beginning her descent down the tree.

Eieieieiiiiiinnnng!

A sharp sound emitted from the skies. Joan’s hands slipped and she fell down the tree. She hit a couple branches on the way down, causing the thinner branches to crack under her weight and finally she slammed heavily against one of the bottommost branches. Her vision flashed with searing light. Her senses faded. There was one thing that Joan heard though.

You have been chosen.

Archive has been unlocked.