into space. Those particles hurtle toward the Earth and collide with atoms in the atmosphere, exciting them and disrupting their natural state. The excited atoms want to return to their normal states, and when they do, the energy they give off is manifested in colorful little bursts of light, called photons. When enough photons are present, the northern lights appear.
Pete’s dad was impressed with Ginette’s presentation, because he had seen the northern lights his whole life and had never known what caused them. “Now that,” he proclaimed, “is a whole lot more interesting than maps!” And everybody laughed, and as they did, Pete took Ginette’s hand, because he was proud that she had impressed his dad.
And Ginette felt that strange lightness again. This time it felt like the northern lights were inside her. And she felt like Pete was one of those charged particles from the sun and he was disrupting her natural state and creating bursts of light inside her.
And she wondered what it meant.
And then she wondered what it meant that she and Pete were holding hands in front of his parents. Did it mean that they were more than more than just friends? Did it mean that they were boyfriend and girlfriend? And that they were dating?
She wanted to know. She wanted to name whatever it was that they were.
But naming what they were would mean assigning words to whatever it was that was happening between them. Which might minimize whatever it was that was happening between them. Because words can make things that seem huge in your heart seem small and insignificant.
But Ginette was willing to take the risk. Because the lightness inside her made her feel like something really wonderful was about to happen to her and Pete.
And it wasn’t going to happen while they were hanging out with Pete’s parents.
So Ginette got up and told Pete, “Come on,” and headed toward the door to put her coat and boots on.
Pete followed Ginette and asked, “Where are we going?”
And Ginette said that talking about the northern lights made her want to go outside and see if they could see them. Because it was the perfect night for them. It was clear, and there was no moon. And she had read that solar storms were currently raging on the sun. So chances were better than they usually were that the northern lights would appear.
And if they didn’t see them, Ginette added, they could just do some stargazing.
Pete didn’t really care if they saw the northern lights or not. He wasn’t interested in outer space like Ginette was. He was more interested in the Earth.
But he was more interested in Ginette than he was in the Earth.
So he was going to go with her to see if they could see the northern lights. Or just stargaze.
So Pete put his coat and boots on and they grabbed their backpacks and their flashlights and headed out to a place that was specifically designated for looking at the night sky—a tiny parcel of land called Skyview Park on the eastern edge of Almost.
The little park had been created by some folks who Pete’s dad called a buncha hippies. They wanted to make Almost, Maine, a dark-sky destination—a place for astro-tourists to visit and look at the stars. Because northern Maine was the largest light-pollution–free swath of land in the eastern United States.
And so the buncha hippies built an observatory—a small wooden platform on a little hill on the edge of Norsworthy’s Potato Farm. And they put a red wooden bench on the platform so people would have a place to sit when they wanted to stargaze.
Once the observatory was built, the hippies got in touch with experts from the International Dark-Sky Association and invited them to come check out the observatory and determine whether Almost qualified as a dark-sky destination.
The experts hadn’t shown up yet, but the hippies were hopeful.
* * *
The only way to get to Skyview Park from Pete’s house was on Almost’s main road—which had two names depending on which way you were going. If you were going east toward the big towns in eastern Aroostook County, you were on the Road to Somewhere.
If you were going west toward the wooded wilderness of northwestern Maine, you were on the Road to Nowhere.
Skyview Park was west of where Pete lived, so he and Ginette headed west on the Road to Nowhere.
As they walked, Pete slid his hand into Ginette’s. It was a warm night for midwinter in Almost,