Narrator's POV
Night time on the boat deck.
The stars blaze overhead, so bright and clear you can see the milkyway. Joe and Nick walk along the row of lifeboats. They are singing a song called "Come Josephine in my flying machine"
They fumble at the words and break down laughing. They have reached the First Class entrance but Joseph doesn't go in, neither of them wanted the evening to end. Through the doors the sound of the ship's orchestra wafts gently. Joe grabs a davit and leans back, staring at the cosmos.
"Isn't it magnificent? So grand and endless" Joe said dreamily, he goes to the rail and leans on it.
"They're such small people, Nick... my crowd. They think they're gaints on this earth, but they're not even dust in God's eye. They live in this tiny champagne bubble... someday that bubble will burst"
Nick leans at the rail beside Joe, his hand just touching his. It is the slightest contact imaginable, and all that either one of them can feel is that square inch of skin where their hands are touching.
"You're not one of them. There's been a mistake" Nick said.
"A mistake?" Joe asked confused.
Nick nodded "you got mailed to the wrong address"
"I did, didn't I?" Joe started laughing. Joe pointed to the star. "Look! A shooting star"
"That was a long one. My father used to say that whenever you saw one, it was a soul going to heaven" Nick told Joe.
"I like that. Aren't we supposed to wish on it?" Joe asked.
Nick looks at him, and finds that they very close to each other. It would be so easy to move another couple of inches, to kiss him. Joe seems to be thinking the same way.
"What would you wish for?" Nick whispered.
In a beat, Joe pulls back.
"Something that I can't have" Joe smiles sadly. "Goodnight Nick and... thank you" he leaves the rail and hurries through the First Class entrance.
"Joe!!!" Nick calls but the door bangs shut, and he is gone. Back to his world.
