Anytime now.

He knows the ember sky that glows long after dusk greys. Black night was once black. It is difficult to explain to anyone anywhere else why past thirty it is possible here to talk like an old man. ‘Last time..’, ‘back then, I remember..’ is not the phrase meant to be lamely turned by young fathers as they explain to a young daughter the before-abouts of our neighborhood. After  all the neighborhood is scarcely older than him.

He remembers her mother too. Before opportunity took her, leaving him the odd single parent. She, the senior she, the prior she, would have baulked at the amount of glitter that now adorned her daughter. Being no expert on femininity he’ll let the pink and frills slip on lest his girl like girly girls like her father. Aware that no engendering can make a man a mother he left it to purchase instead.

For now the dress-up tinsel tiaras will twinkle distraction from other things that gleam. She wanted to know where were the stars, the bright ones like the silver foil in her little books. They had tried to look last night. Squinting, one in disbelief, the other in mild panic. How ginormous fireballs could be obscured by the gazillion little electric lamps is not easily explained, its injustice unfathomable. He dared not ventre an introduction to the power of fossil fuel, sustainable energy, indicators of civilization and light as the source of community safety and security. Junior astronomy was causing him enough grief. ‘My five year-old sorts trash for recycling and carries a rape-alarm.’ is not his idea of a pickup line at future parent support sessions.

The same glow that stole the stars had driven her mother away. To darker avenues where she could bring her own light and recognize it too. Still the stars had always shine no matter how many kilo-watts be thrust at them. It just takes a long hard look. So too his daughter will be her mother’s child, there would be no exorcising it. He understood this, it terrified him that someday his child would too.

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