Page 61 of Revived

“Then that’s all that matters. How’s that boy of yours?”

And that brightens my mood instantly. “Oh, he’s a hoot. Just turned five.”

“No kidding? That doesn’t seem possible. Although, then I guess that means Hannah’s been gone almost as long, huh?” Theodore has been a resident of Emerson Falls for decades. He and his wife owned a little café that his daughter now owns and runs. His wife and he retired to Hyatt Lake, which is a lakeside town nestled up in the mountains adjacent to Emerson Falls, and apparently now he helps operate this facility. Theodore has known me my entire life, watched me grow up and get married, so he obviously knows about Hannah. Everyone in the town did.

“Yeah, it has. But tonight is about Rachel. Rach?” I call her over, my heart strumming wildly as I watch her glide to where I’m standing. Hannah is in the back of my mind at the moment, but the sight of my date helps me refocus on why I’m here.

“Theo, this is Rachel, my nanny and my date.” I introduce them and they shake hands.

“Nice to meet you. Thank you for keeping the place open for us.”

“No problem. When Luke called, I knew it had to be for someone special.” He winks.

“Well, I’m thrilled.”

“Just let me know if you two need anything. The telescope is already calibrated, so have at it. Clear skies tonight make for the perfect star-gazing conditions.” Theo grins and then makes himself scarce as I follow Rachel over to the massive telescope stationed in the center of the room.

“Do you know how to work this thing?” I whisper in her ear as she lines up her eye to the scope.

“Well, I’ve never looked through one this big, but I’m sure it’s just like the smaller ones I used with my grandpa.” Rachel swivels the apparatus a bit and then stops on something she sees. “Here, take a look.” I close in on the eyepiece this time and see the crystal clear picture before me of so many stars it’s impossible to count.

“Wow. So what am I looking at?”

“Do you see the four bright stars that form sort of a rectangle?”

I nod while still looking into the tube. “Uh huh…”

“And then there’s three more stars that angle out from one of the corners, that kind of form a handle or a string on a kite?”

“Yes…”

“That’s the big dipper.” I stand and find her smiling from ear to ear.

“That’s like, the easiest constellation to find,” I chide.

She just shrugs. “I know. But it’s my favorite one.”

“Why?”

“Because it was the first one my grandpa showed me. Obviously because it was the easiest, but that didn’t matter to me. It was the memory that I fell in love with, how he showed me pictures in the stars from then on out and made me fall in love with the stories.”

“Aren’t they all Greek gods or something?”

“Mostly, according to legend and astronomers. The one I actually love the most is Cassiopeia.”

“What’s that story about?”

I listen to Rachel recount a tale of an egotistical woman who was so full of herself that she told Poseidon, king of the sea, that she was more beautiful than all of his daughters put together. He apparently created a sea monster to destroy her kingdom in Ethiopia she ruled with her husband, Cepheus. Much to Poseidon’s dismay, the kingdom survived and she continued to flaunt her beauty. Next, she challenged Hera, queen of the Gods, to say she was more beautiful than her. Hera didn’t take this lightly though and tied Cassiopeia to her throne with rope, throwing her so hard and fast into the sky that she got stuck in the stars for all eternity, hanging upside down. Her husband was distraught with his wife’s circumstances and couldn’t bear the thought of living without her, so he begged Zeus to banish him to the sky as well. Relenting after his pleading, Zeus cast Cepheus to the stars right next to Cassiopeia, where they remained together and in love for all eternity.

When she’s done, I can’t help but assess the tale. “So your favorite story is about a vain woman that thought she was such hot shit, she got herself imprisoned in the sky?”

Rachel laughs and tucks her hair behind her ears. “Yes. As corny as it may sound, my grandpa explained the lesson of the story to me, and that’s what made it stick. He said the important thing to take away from Cassiopeia is that external beauty isn’t everything. A kind heart and compassionate soul will help you make your mark in the world far more than your looks. It always reminded me that being humble and giving back to others was important. But the fact that her husband was so distraught without her and begged to be cast aside with her put the cherry on top. It was a love story, albeit unorthodox, but still spoke of the power of love as well.”

I never thought of it that way until she mentioned Cepheus’s desperation to be with his wife. I felt that way after Hannah died, wondering if I could live without her. If it weren’t for Grayson, who knows how I might have reacted otherwise.

“You learn something new every day,” I say, shoving my hands in my pockets as Rachel returns to the telescope and continues to find constellations to show me, including Cassiopeia, which is visible this time of year. We spend the next hour gazing across the arrays of stars, Rachel sharing her knowledge of the stories with me before I realize it’s almost ten o’clock.

“Is it really that late already?” She asks, clearly as surprised as I am.

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