Chasing Starlight 💫

7. When the Universe changed...

(Above is a charcoal drawing I did of Alrund a few years back. Thought I'd add it for this chapter!)

Ash:

"Bye, Ash!" David said, as the wire door slammed behind him. It had a horrible sense of finality that made her want to cry. But she wouldn't. She was determined. She stared through the door, scratching at the wire netting, the sound grating her teeth.

"Dad, don't go!" She pushed open the door and stepped out into the night. The porchlight flickered over the driveway, thanks to the faulty lightbulb David had been meaning to fix. She doubted he'd be fixing it anytime soon. He was too busy squeezing the last of the cardboard boxes into his van, alongside the rest of his possessions. The car door slammed shut, jolting her heart. Ash sprinted down the porch, clutching his Richmond football flag, which flailed in the wind. This was it—the moment when her parents came to an end.

It had all began after they'd returned from work, when they'd broken the news that David was moving out. Tonight. She'd tried not to show any emotion—for her parents' sake, mostly—but as she passed him his flag through the window she was closer to tears than ever.

"It's for the best," David said. "We'll talk tomorrow. Yeah?"

She nodded. A lot.

"Night, Ashie." Rubbing his bald head, he smiled wearily and started the engine, his headlights moving further away as he reversed up the driveway. A wave of his hand and he was gone, up the street and to... She wasn't sure where.

As Ash went inside, her heart felt as if it was burning up. It was almost as bad as that weird turn she'd had about two hours ago, when her spirit felt close to bursting and she swore that something had changed in the universe. It was crazy. She knew that. Her only explanation was that she'd sensed her parents split just before they'd arrived home from work. Or maybe she was just screwed up in ways even she couldn't understand.

Ash hovered in the alcove, staring out the door and into the darkness. Beyond the driveway a streetlamp had a haze around it. The night was too cold, too misty, too silent.

As Marianne passed down the hall, Ash almost screamed at her for not trying harder, for letting her dad walk out the door. But Marianne's head was down the entire walk to the kitchen, and Ash suspected her mum was crying as she loaded plates into the dishwasher.

"Mum," Ash said. "Leave that. I'll do it later."

Marianne thumped the dishwasher door closed and leaned against it. She stood there for a good minute, facing the window and wiping her eyes.

Ash's voice came out surprisingly upbeat, as she said, "You know what we haven't done in a while?"

"What's that?"

"Sat on the back roof."

"Ash, I don't know... I'm really not in the mood."

"Come on...!" She flicked on the kettle. "I've already started the hot chocolate."

"Boiling water barely constitutes as hot chocolate, sweet."

"Ha. That's what you think!" Ash raced around the kitchen, collecting thermoses, fruit, cocoa and milk, pouring the kettle the second it clicked off. In less than a minute, two hot chocolates were on the counter, along with a fruit salad. "There. Finished."

Marianne stared in astonishment. "That was fast. Really fast. I knew you would be one day, but I never realized..."

Ash frowned. Her mum really wasn't making sense and it was beginning to freak her out. She loaded the goodies into a bag and dragged her mum out the back door and across the patio. Bag in one hand, Ash climbed the ladder onto the roof that overlooked their backyard and the solar lamps lighting the gardens. Ash already had the drinks out and the fruit salad in mugs by the time Marianne was sitting on the skylight beside her.