That night was nearly the exact same as most other fall nights. Clear, quiet, and chilly with a bit of a breeze, which swept across the open fields. Notice the word "mostly". What set tonight apart from other nights was the number of people still awake at 1:00 in the morning. They'd been up all night waiting for a special sight. Any moment now, the first meteor shower of the fall season would arrive, marking many years of successful harvests. Why humans did this was beyond the meteors' understanding, but they went about their business anyway. As most space objects do.
For the people of this small community, it would be a perfect night filled with wonder, beauty, and for some; silent curiosity.
"Mom! I can't stay up anymore! I'm going to bed!"
Well I guess the silent part can go screw itself.
"Braxton, no you're not. This is a special occasion. You got to skip the last few so can you just try to be respectful for this one?"
On the front porch of a grimy little mobile home, a mother sat in a plastic lawn chair while her son mouthed off loud enough for the whole town to hear.
"What's so special about a bunch of old guys getting drunk over a few flying rocks?" , he whined.
"Braxton Kentel, this is more than that. It's to celebrate all their hard work."
The boy leaned over the worn wooden beam which spanned the porch.
"Yeah but when I work hard the universe doesn't give me space rocks."
His mother sighed.
"Braxton we both know you don't work. You're thirteen and have somehow managed to get yourself on the wall of shame forty-three times."
Brax didn't like when his mother brought up the wall of shame. It was a cruel punishment that his teacher used to get kids in line. Braxton's full name was up there frequently. More than just the forty-three times his mother knew about. Defeated, he turned his angry gaze away from mom and toward the sky, then the ground. He didn't like space. He didn't like anything that involved too much complexity. Brax found it hard to focus on things that weren't his best interests. Not to say that he was stupid. In fact, he only made it look like that so he could get away with sneaking around and pranking his neighbors. He was clever when he wanted to be, but it often got him into trouble. Most of that trouble was with his teacher, but Brax found it amusing. Apparently so did his classmates.
His mom poked his arm and pointed up.
"Hey Mr. pouty-face, it's starting."
Brax lifted his head back up to the sky, and his frown faded a little, eyes wide awake with fascination.
The deep black canvas that once hosted nothing but stars now displayed sharp lines that zipped from the left to the right. Each one making it's merry way into the distant horizon. The boy watched each big bright blur speed after the other. He'd seen videos and pictures of it, but didn't think it would be all that impressive in person. Science was a weird thing to him.
So drawn in by the lightshow, he almost missed it. One of the lines was off. It was more of an orange color, moved a bit slower, and strayed further away from the others as it sped across the sky. Brax wasn't sure it was supposed to do that. He glanced over at his mom, looking for a reaction. She didn't seem bothered by it in the slightest, so he shrugged it off and continued to watch. Far behind them and the house, at the base of a distant hill, a small orange flash made a second-long appearance, and nothing more.
Although he found the meteor shower entertaining, Brax still thought it was stupid that the farmers would use it as an excuse to go party late the very night before they had to start the harvest. It seemed pointless to start the harvest after the festivities when the festivities are celebrating how hard they worked on it. Celebrating after just made more sense. Brax could think of several decisions the farmers made that didn't make sense. No wonder barley anyone lives there. It's just another nowhere-town run by a handful of hicks.
A little less than an hour later, the display was coming to an end. As the last few faint trails came to their destinations, Braxton's mother stood up and stretched.
"Alright, now you can head inside."
"Yes!", said Brax with a sigh of relief.
He was glad he didn't have to stand out there anymore while his mother sat in the only chair.
"And I'll be checking in on you to make sure you're in bed. I don't want you staying up late anymore. You've got school in a few weeks.", his mom shouted from the living room, plopping down on the couch.
Brax and his mom never had a very close bond. If they did, Brax was sure it was forever ago. The truth was, his mother was such a nice person before his father took advantage of that. Braxton didn't know exactly how it ended, but one morning when he was just 2, he'd tottered out to the living room to find his mom at the door, watching dad's car speed down the driveway and out of sight. Ever since then, people who were once good friends with mom either took dad's side in the matter, or slowly faded into the background of the family's lives.
It wasn't often that Brax thought about mom's old friends, since he barely remembered very few of them. When he did, it was all just bits and pieces of conversations that didn't even matter to him. It's hard to miss people you never knew. Although, there was this one woman that stood out to him. Her name was long forgotten, but he remembered what she looked like. She had long black hair and pale skin. She would come over a lot during the summer months to hang out with mom, and then play water tag with Brax and his little plastic water guns. Brax hated to admit it, but she was far better at that game then he was. She never put it above him though. He had faint memories of times when she would let him win, and then pretend to be dead. Whenever he recalled his few memories of her, Brax wondered where she went. Where could she be right now? Does she remember him?
Thoughts and questions about this random lady started to slowly fade out as Brax climbed into bed, and his focus turned toward the past ten hours of his existence. What a frickin day... he thought. Normally it took him quite some time to get to sleep, but tonight Brax found it surprisingly easy.