my two star charms superimposed on a photo of stars and moon beamed up the ceiling using the grandson's night light.
also for the current tag challenge. my tags are night and blue.
speaking of stars...
1984, on the beach of La Union, north of Manila.
We were walking on the beach one evening, the waves lapping noises were the only sound along with the soft crunching of the sand beneath our feet. The night was inky black, but we were guided by the lights from the windows of the cabanas. Beyond in the water, small twinkling lights from fisherman’s boats gave a surreal reflection on the still ocean. He was holding my hand, as we walked and talked. He was scheduled to leave for Belgium to take his two children from their mother to bring them back to Manila for a school break. His divorce had just been finalized and he wanted the children to meet me. He was sad, he said, because I wouldn’t go. My contract with the office had a moral clause that we could not date or have any kind of personal relationship with our expatriates, although everyone knew we were a couple and we were “in the open” anyway. But I had responsibilities at home, a boy who needed my presence, and I had my studies. “Come with me, we’ll take the boy,” he said. But it would be a financial inconvenience for him. Although he earned good money, he wasn’t rich. I didn’t want him to take on the burden of extra expenses just so I could go with him. I told him two weeks would pass by quickly and before he knew it, he’d be back with his children. He was so distraught and I didn’t know how else to appease him. When I looked up at the sky, it was velvety black but filled with twinkling stars that you’d think you can just reach up and pluck a couple. So I said to him, “Souriez, le ciel est plein d’étoiles!” But I said it in a high pitched and playful voice like Olive Oyl in the cartoon “Popeye”. He suddenly broke into a laugh; he laughed so hard he fell down on the sand, got wet by the waves and still he was laughing. He pulled me down towards him and I tried to get away, but I still fell down on my knees and sure enough a big wave that we could only hear but not see just engulfed the two of us. Still he was laughing. When he could control himself, he said, say that again. And I did. “Souriez, le ciel est plein d’étoiles!”
It was a line i remembered from one of my French workbooks.
