Page 31 of Lie For Me

‘What?’ Lucy puffed. ‘Help me up!’

She tried to sit up but, exhausted by laughing, could only raise her head and shoulders. She fell back down, her hair fanning out behind her.

Jack, half on and half off the wall, lowered himself down, feet propped on the wall beside Lucy’s.

‘What are you doing?’

‘If you can’t beat 'em... No need to rush back.’

‘I’m out of champagne, though.’

Lucy waved her empty glass.

‘Yes, I think most of it went on me.’ Jack prodded his damp shirt. ‘I smell like a winery.’

‘Ooh, my favourite smell. Winery, by Lucy.’

‘Okay, well, we’ll sort out your terrible thirst for booze in a minute.’

From their newly horizontal position, Jack could see up through the leaves of the shrubbery to the clear night sky.

‘It’s nice here,’ Lucy said, gazing up.

Jack pointed to a cluster of stars in the sky.

‘Look, that’s Orion there.’

Lucy squinted at him suspiciously.

‘Pfft, you don’t know anything about the stars,’ she scoffed.

‘I do!’ Jack retorted. ‘I had a book about the night sky when I was a kid and I learnt all the major constellations. Look, over there, that’s Big Bear.’

Jack jabbed a finger at the sky.

Lucy followed where he pointed.

‘Which one?’

‘See that group of stars there, with the brighter one at the top?’ Lucy nodded. ‘That’s it.’

‘Oh yes. Wow!’

‘And that one is Baby Bear.’ Lucy followed his arm, nodding. ‘And that one over there, in the distance…that’s Goldilocks.’

Lucy burst out laughing and prodded him with her empty glass.

‘I knew it! You don’t know any more about the stars than me.’

‘Wish I did,’ Jack said. ‘There’s always someone in a film where they find themselves hanging around at night for some reason, who seems to casually list off all the major constellations. Look at all that out there. You know,’ he adjusted his position under the bushes, ‘we’re spinning through space at a thousand miles an hour.’

Lucy frowned at him.

‘Now that one’s true. You can look it up.’

They fell quiet, contemplating hurtling through space at speed. Lucy sighed and fidgeted.

‘Yes, spinning through space at high speed and here I am hiding in a shrubbery to avoid my family.’

---