"Artie? Artie, wake up."
A hand, obviously Tina's, rubbed back and forth upon my shoulder. Still half asleep, I rolled my upper body to face her. It was dark, and my glasses were off, so all I saw was a blurry black silhouette sitting beside me.
"I have to go to the bathroom." She said retracting her hand from my shoulder.
"Oh, okay." I yawned, returning to my previous sleep position and hugging my pillow.
"Arthur!" She called again, this time with more determination. "I mean now."
"Then go." I groaned.
"By…myself?" She asked in a troubled voice.
"You're a big girl." I mocked.
"But it's dark," She whimpered. "Artie please come with me."
I turned back onto my shoulders and looked up at her. "Fine," I sighed. "Let me find a shirt."
With a biodegradable roll of toilette paper and a shovel in one hand, Tina waked beside me though the campsite. Mom designated a spot, across the half-acre meadow and into the woods, for stuff like this. Because the untamed assortment of grasses came up to her ankles, Tina got behind me and maneuvered the chair. Damn strait, she woke me up at three-o'clock in the morning.
"Thank you for coming with me." She said stopping in front of the forest and circulating to the side of me.
"Yeah, yeah – just hurry up." I mumbled.
As I waited for Tina, mosquitoes buzzed around my head. My legs were free game, considering I was too lazy to pull on a pair of sweatpants over my boxers, but I guess it didn't really matter considering I couldn't feel them anyways. I already came to terms with a few on my arms, which I wasn't happy about at all. Just as I was about to call for her to hurry up, she emerged from the covert. The flashlight in one of her hands led her way back to me.
"Shall we?" She asked putting the total contents of her hands in my lap before getting behind my chair. Getting though the meadow this time was easier, but only slightly because of the path made on our way down.
"Artie look at the stars." Tina said in awe as she eased to a stop.
"We have the same ones back home, you know." I said looking back at her.
"No – not like this." She said drifting to the right of me. Her hand was the last thing to leave my chair as she wandered deeper and deeper towards the center of the field as if drawn by something supernatural. Having no other choice, I reluctantly followed her footsteps. Rolling though the think grass was a lot more difficult on my own, especially with the uneven and bumpy turf, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. When I finally caught up to Tina, she was lounged out in the grass with an arm under her head and knees pointed directly up at the sky.
"Come lay in the grass with me." She said, continuing to look up at the atmosphere.
"Tina, it's late." I said placing my hands in my lap.
"Please? It's our last night here." She said.
"Well, I guess it'd be a good opportunity to observe the northern hemisphere's constellations." I answered with a nod after a moment of thought.
Placing the contents of my lap on the ground next to my left wheel before hand, I lowered myself to the earth. The grass was slightly damp against the bottom of my hands, but it wasn't enough to soak though clothing. Once a foot away from Tina, I laid myself parallel with her body. Sitting up, she rotated her body ninety degrees before laying her head back down on my abdomen. I slipped my arm under her elbow and placed my one hand on top of her two that rested below her breasts.
"See the star right above us?" I asked pointing up to the night sky. "The big bright one? That's Polaris. It's part of Ursa Minor, and is visible everywhere in the northern hemisphere."
"Ursa Minor…that's Little Bear right?" She asked.
"Exactly." I smiled with a nod of approval.
As time went on, I actually became glad Tina dragged me outside so early in the morning. She was right; this was different. Here there were no artificial lighting and you could see almost every star perfectly in front of their velvet backing.
In the blink of an eye, a beam of light sailed across the sky – a shooting star.
"You know, I used to wish that the accident never happened. That was silly though; you can't turn back the clock no matter how many times you plead." I said continuing to look into the heavens.
"Artie…" She sympathized.
"Let me finish." I interrupted, patting her hand. "Now I'm just thankful that the damage wasn't more severe, you know? More then I'd like, but easily I could have lost everything from the neck down."
"We'd manage." She smiled after a moment of silence.
"You'd still want me?" I asked, slightly taken back.
"Of course, you silly – silly boy." She said. My first initial thought was, who'd want to be in a relationship with someone who couldn't even administrate a hug, but then I stopped myself. It was Tina for Christ's sake, if she accepted this, then there was no doubt that she completely meant what she said.
From under the rims of my glasses, I noticed a blinking yellow light on my chest. With a smile, I titled my chin down to get a better look at the lonely little firefly crawling aimlessly above my ribcage.
"Did you know fireflies choose their mates based on light pattern?" I asked after the beetle flickered once more. Tina raised an eyebrow at me before following my gaze. With a grin, she rolled over onto her stomach and piled her arms on the warm spot where her head used to be.
"Sorry buddy." She said laying her hand flat on my chest and letting the firefly wander onto her hand. "I'm not willing to share."
I laughed at her gesture as the bug crawled to the tip of her middle finger and balanced on the edge of her nail before taking off into the sky to join its comrades. I followed our acquaintance with my eyes until it got lost among the other fifty or so others dancing in the sky. Tina sighed happily before resting her chin on her top wrist. But no matter how many fireflies were in the sky, there was only one light at mattered to me, and she was lying right before my eyes.