My Dear Fiona

Chapter 32 - Northern Lights

Have you ever drifted into an experience so foreign you lack the means to communicate it and all the rules you relied upon to guide your life become useless?

My sister and I ventured into the boreal night again, only this time it wasn't dark. In the absence of light pollution, the sky burst open to reveal a profusion of stars, clustered tight along the bright path of the Milky Way.

The night was a lot colder than we had gotten used to.

The ocean air carries a lot of moisture to the islands, which traps warm air under its cloud cover, but tonight there were no clouds, and the sky was full of stars, which felt close enough to touch, and looked so brilliant.

We can no longer imagine a sky so bright with stars that even on a dark moon it illuminates the earth enough to see its every detail, cast in cool hues.

I looked at Denise and almost didn't recognize her: she had a light blue halo in her hair, and her demeanor was so serious it made her look wise beyond her years.

We decided to go back to Birsay, to see the Northern Lights, a fitting ending to my search for you, princess, which started here.

The broch is not accessible in winter. We contented ourselves to watch its contours in the distance, highlighted by the glow of the stars.

The tide was retreating, slowly revealing the underwater stone path to the broch, too dangerous to engage this time of year, for humans, anyway.

As the waters receded, their shiny surface gleamed like a mirror, reflecting the Milky Way.

It got colder, but we didn't care; we instinctively kept quiet, quiet enough to hear the eerie chirping and twittering, while a green glow blanketed the surroundings.

Suddenly, everything we knew about reality melted into the mesmerizing scene in front of our eyes.

The sky shifted with surreal colors of green, electric blue, yellow, rose, and purple, making us forget to breathe.

The colors danced among the stars, with playful sparkles reflected by the sea, chirping like unearthly colonies of birds. I can't imagine what people must have thought about this spectacle worthy of the gods in your times. How does one explain the sky suddenly coming alive like that?

A strange energy creature watched us from above, pulsating with curiosity.

It must have felt like a god to you, Fiona, an all-powerful entity with fingers of light touching the earth and sky.

We lost the wonder.

Well, many of us never had it: you have to live this far north for this awe-inspiring experience to become a part of your normal reality.

The lights swirled around us like playful fires, and we were drunk with their magic, and unafraid, welcoming their presence and their touch with gratitude, giggling like children.

Denise opened herself to the gift of the sky, and she looked iconic, like the priestesses of old. Even her white parka reminded me of a ceremonial garment.

I watched my sister, as I did since we were children, trying to glimpse the secret fire that animated her life. She was not like me, Denise, there was always this other her, this larger her, just bursting to come out when the situation warranted it.

Behind the histrionics and the willingness to allow herself to be possessed by the emotions of the moment, there was a quiet power, a spark I can't explain, and I'm sure she doesn't understand either, the glow of her higher self.