Mars Hill Ch. 01

Rebecca just grinned, obviously finding some sort of amusement from my discomfort.

"Oh come on, Rebecca, can't you see the poor boy is obviously jet lagged?" Beth poured tea from the kettle she had been making into three mugs and handed them out to us. "No wonder he can't seem to think straight. He probably only got an hour of sleep last night."

The hot tea seemed to clear my head and stopped me from acting stupider than I already had. I liked Beth. She reminded me a lot of my mother and Aunt G. But Rebecca? Well, she was something else entirely.

With introductions out of the way, Beth sent Rebecca and me out to walk the grounds while she opened the museum for the first visitors who were just starting to arrive. Rebecca quickly showed me the highlights of the Mars Hill grounds. From the Clark Telescope—which was one of the biggest refractor telescopes in North America; to the rotunda that had exhibits about the history of the observatory; and then the tomb of "Uncle Percy" Percival Lowell, the founder of the observatory. Finally, she took me to the telescope that had been used to discover Pluto.

"What's with the boxing mitt on the balancing arm?" I asked.

"I knew it!" she said, hitting my shoulder with a laugh. "I knew you were holding back on me."

"Well, you can't have an astronomer for an aunt and not pick up some stuff about astronomy," I said sheepishly.

"This is where the tour ends. But we still have some time, so let's just hide here so Beth doesn't find something for us to do," Rebecca smiled and closed the door to the telescope.

I raised my eyebrows to her before darkness filled the telescope dome.

"That way no one will stumble in here and catch us slacking off." There was a soft click, and the red lights that were used when making observations came one, allowing us to still see. "So, tell me more about you, Jeremy."

"Well, I'm not that interesting."

"I'll be the judge of that," she said with a smile.

My stomach was instantly filled with butterflies, and my hands started to get moist.

"Well...I grew up in Chicago and made it through high school, somehow. I'm studying for a BA in history and a minor in music. I had some health problems, so everyone thought it would be a good idea for me to get out of the city for a while. Aunt Gillian offered to take me in. She found me this job to keep me busy while I get better. I should be going back for my fourth year in the fall."

"What part of history are you studying?"

"My professor has a hard-on for how languages shaped history. I'm a bit of a nerd, if you haven't been able to tell. I am investigating the proposed international language, Esperanto. Specifically, the role it may have played in the past as well as how it could affect the future."

"What is it that draws you to history?" Rebecca asked, raising one of the most graceful eyebrows I had ever seen.

"Being able to compare and contrast it with today. To use where we were and are now to look into the future. I mean, it's not fortune-telling, but noting cycles in climate, economics, and politics to use them as factors for prediction is pretty common. So why not language?"

"I guess I can see that," Rebecca nodded. "What kind of music are you interested in?"

"All kinds, but I used to study classical voice."

"Oh, a singer. That's cool. I'll get you to sing something for me one day."

"How about you?"

"Well, I'm not much for music these days, but I used to play keyboard. And sometimes, I get together with friends. We pretend to be in a metal band and do cover songs. I play drums with them. I'm pretty good at keeping rhythm."

"Cool, but that's not what I meant. What's your past? Where are you from? How did you end up here?"

She grinned. "Doing some historical research?"

"Purely professional interest," I replied with a wink. I don't know how I came to be flirting with Rebecca so quickly after barely being able to speak in front of her. I just knew that it felt right and I was somehow at ease with her.

"Well, I'm from Kings Canyon in Australia and grew up in the Outback. It's a beautiful place with lots of stars. When I was little, I wanted to know what the stars were. So my mum took me down the library in Alice Springs, and I asked for a book on stars. The librarian gave me a book that was full of people like Hugo Weaving. I had to explain that was not the book I wanted. Eventually, we figured it out. When I turned ten, my dad gave me my first telescope. Once I had done my undergrad studies, I got accepted right away to do grad work at Melbourne University and doctoral work here with your Aunt. I've been in the states two years now."

"What are you working on now?" I asked.

"Exoplanets. I'm trying to refine the ways we can detect them here on earth. I have a paper to present in six weeks that I am reviewing with Dr. Gillian, and I need to finish my data collection so I can finish my thesis." She drew a bit closer and looked me right in the eye. Her eyes were deep and beautiful, like an ocean of brown waves flecked with green and blue whitecaps.

Heat suddenly flooded my body.

"You know," she whispered, "I feel like I've known you for ages. I'm not normally this talkative, but it feels like we've been friends forever."

"I feel the same way." I gulped. Maybe I felt a whole lot more than just friends.

She stood toe-to-toe now and tilted her face up at me. Did she want me to kiss her? My body went into panic mode. I'd only known her a few hours. Yeah, we were getting along well, but is this really what...

"God damn, you're tall," she muttered. With a wicked laugh, she pinched me on the arm and threw open the door.

The morning was a blur of learning what to do for the tour. And flirting with Rebecca. Before I knew it, the day was nearly over.

"You two seem to be getting on okay," Beth observed while we were doing our final cleanup for the evening. Normally, there were night activities at the observatory and it reopened much later in the day. But tonight was one of the rare nights off.

"He's okay, I guess. For an undergrad," Rebecca teased.

"Just keep it professional in the workplace." Beth gave her a sharp, knowing look. But the glare quickly turned into a smile "You two would be a cute couple. But what do I know? I just work here."

Rebecca and I exchanged a look.

"You don't have to worry, ma'am," I said, feeling my cheeks heat up. "We're just friends. I mean we just met today..."

"Enough with that 'ma'am' talk, Jeremy. And sure, you tell yourself that if you want. If I want fiction, I'll watch reality TV. Speaking of which..." Beth glanced down at her watch. "Looks like it's time for me to get home. 'Survivor' is starting, and it's so rare to have a night off. Make sure you lock up everything, Rebecca."

Beth was halfway to her SUV by the time she was done talking. We waved as she drove out of the parking lot.

"Alone, at last," Rebecca sighed. She, too, looked at her watch and said, "I have to go. Got plans tonight."

"Boyfriend?" I asked with a stab of jealousy, my stomach felt like it was deflating at the thought.

"Ha. No. Don't have one of those. Having dinner with my sister. She just got into the university here, so we're going to eat and then look at apartments so we can live together. She flew up for a visit and a house hunting trip. She probably just woke up actually." She looked at me pensively and then said while she finished locking the door and setting the alarm, "I'm not working tomorrow. Which means you aren't either, until you're trained. Want to meet up after dinner after my house hunting tour with my sister? She is going to want to explore the college night life on her own, and I have something to show you that you might find cool."

"Um, yeah. I don't have a car or anything..." I felt embarrassed. I would need a vehicle so I didn't have to keep relying on my aunt for a ride everywhere.

"No problem. I'll pick you up at Dr. Gillian's house. I know where it is. We meet up there sometimes to talk about my thesis. Does ten o'clock work?"

"Um, yeah."

"Great. See you then." Rebecca jumped into her car and drove away, leaving me staring at the empty parking spot.

"How was your day, Jer?" Aunt Sam asked when she picked me up from the empty parking lot in front of the interpretive centre.

"It was good." I enjoyed the view as we pulled out of the parking lot, flagstaff opening up below us before we started the windy road down the hill.

"Make any new friends?"

"Well, yeah. Beth is great! Totally funny and still maternal."

Aunt Sam laughed.

"As if being maternal and being hilarious are mutually exclusive," she said, turning to look at me. "Spill it Jer, what else happened?"

"...And I met this girl."

"I knew it. Better tell me details, mister." She laughed as we pulled out of the parking lot and started the winding drive down Mars Hill.

"She is beautiful, kind, funny, and just... awesome. I don't really have the words..." I stammered. Just thinking about her sent adrenaline into my veins and butterflies into my stomach. "I haven't felt like this about someone in a very, very long time. No, I take that back."

"Oh?" my aunt said with a glint of worry in her eyes.

"Yeah, I do take it back. I've never felt this way about anyone before."

"Sounds like a nice day then," my aunt said with a smile. "Your Aunt G and I really want you to fit in and enjoy yourself out here, Jer. I'm glad that you are..." she looked at me sideways, "making friends."

She winked at me.

"She asked me to meet up with her tonight," I blurted out.

"Oh, she did now? What is this lucky girl's name?"

"Rebecca."

"The same Becca that is Gillian's student?" she asked carefully.

"Yes. Why?"

"Be gentle with her, Jer. She has had darkness in her past. She is a sweet girl, kind and generous. But don't think that you can just play with her and then drop her. She has had a rough life."

This news surprised me. The image that she had told me of her life in Australia and her family didn't seem rough to me. Was she lying when she told me of home? Or was my aunt just being paranoid? I was also a little insulted, since I was not the kind of person who would play with someone's emotions maliciously.

"I wouldn't hurt her," I said defensively.

My aunt sighed. "I know, Jer. But she is...fragile. Just keep that in mind as a favor to me, please?"

"What happened?"

"That's not for me to tell. Becca will tell you if she wants to, when she is ready. Or maybe she never will. I'm glad she likes you, and you are meeting up later."

With that, we pulled into the driveway. Since I had a few hours to kill and was still tired from the time change and getting up early, I took a nap. My dreams were dark, with Rebecca screaming at me for rescue and then falling into darkness. I woke up with a start at eight o'clock to Aunt Gillian shaking my foot to get me up for dinner. I ate and then took a shower. By the time ten o'clock rolled around, I was refreshed and ready to go.

"Don't stay out too late," Aunt Gillian called from where she stood with Sam in the door.

"See you!" I called back, trying not to sound like a teenager while I got into Rebecca's car.

"Hey, Jeremy," Rebecca said, peeling out the driveway.

"What's the rush?" The jerky motions threw me back into my seat, and I struggled to buckle my seatbelt.

"Oh, just have a surprise for you."

We drove for a few minutes before I recognized where we were heading. "I thought the observatory was closed for the night?"

"It is," she said, and then she was silent for a while longer.

I was beginning to wonder what was going on when just before we made the last turn to the observatory, she pulled left into a lookout on the side of the road that I had not noticed earlier today. I looked over at her and saw she was wearing a snug blue tank top that, in profile, highlighted her breasts. They were small and looked like they would fit perfectly in my hand. I was hard instantly, much to my embarrassment.

"Checking out the view?" she asked, raising one eyebrow when she caught me staring.

A flush of embarrassment at being caught rushed into my face.

"Come on." She pulled on a hoodie and got out of the car.

It was surprisingly mild out. I could smell spring in the air although there was still some snow on the ground. We walked to a stone wall and looked out over the city.

"Why is it so dark, Rebecca?" I blurted.

She laughed softly. "Figured you would notice. And call me Becca. It's so the city doesn't interfere with the observatories. There are a few big ones in town, not just Lowell. They have a bylaw that regulates the brightness, direction, and color of the streetlights. It makes for some wonderful night skies. Look at Orion there. You can really see the nebula in his junk." Turned and grinned at me.

"What?" I said with a laugh, heat rising on my cheeks.

"Well, it's supposed to be a sword. But who wears their sword in the middle of their belt? We all know it's really Orion's cock," she said softly with a light laugh at the joke.

I could see a blue cloud surrounding one of the stars on the...sword. "It's really cool."

A van pulled into the lookout beside us. Two teenagers jumped out of the driver and passenger side doors then hopped in the back. Within minutes, the windows were frosted over.

"Did you bring me to the make-out spot for Flagstaff?" I asked, maybe a little too hopefully.

"It's a lookout, Jeremy," Rebecca said with mild exasperation. "It has lots of purposes. But right now, just look out...at the sky." She leaned back and draped her pixie like body on the hood of her car.

I followed suit, and we both stared into the depths of space. Then we talked. About my cancer. About Esperanto and the ideals of a universal language. About growing up in Australia and what it was like to immigrate so far away. About bullies and sports and music and celebrities. Before I knew it, it was past midnight. She dropped me off in front of my aunt's place.

We didn't kiss. But we hugged. The feeling of her body touching mine was amazing. She was soft, supple, and warm. Firm yet tender. Ripples of lust spread through my body. And afterward, as I was lying in bed, I fondly remembered her warmth and feeling.

The next few weeks went by in what seemed like a flash. Becca taught me the ropes of giving the tour. Within a week, I was doing the tours myself with her just following along.

I also started working at night when the observatory re opened for public viewing, a surprisingly popular event for both tourists and locals. We had multiple smaller telescopes on tripods that Becca showed me how to set up and align. After a few weeks of just general assistance (and multiple times cleaning the Men's room), I was asked to cover an 8 inch telescope that was pointing toward Jupiter.

That night I was nervous but Becca coached me through what people would ask.

"Does Jupiter have Rings?"

"Yes"

"Can I see the giant red spot?"

"No it's currently on the other side of the planet, but you can see colourful bands."

"Are those it's moons?"

"Yes you can see 4 moons, one on the left side and three on the right."

"Very good," Becca said with a smile. "People only really have 3 questions about Jupiter usually, most of the time they just think it's cool."

And she was right. That first night I really had nothing to be worried about. Lots of people said it was 'Cool' or 'awesome'. And they all asked the same three questions. When the night was over and Becca was helping me to pack the telescopes away, she had a naughty idea.

"So, I've told the people working the Clark Telescope that we would put it to bed for them because you need to learn it," she began.

I groaned at the extra work. I was really tired.

"And because we will be doing the lock up for the telescope and I am doing lock up of the site, we can do some observations through the telescope before we put it to bed. I have some cool stuff to show you."

And she did. We looked at Jupiter through the big old telescope and it was even cooler than looking at it through the 8 inch telescope I had worked earlier.

Then we looked at Mars.

"So you know Percival Lowell looked at Mars right? That's why this observatory was founded. He was just obsessed with the planet."

"Yeah," I said. "He thought he saw canals and cities. I saw his drawings in the library."

"Well this was the telescope he used. The Apollo astronauts who trained here also used it to scout for moon landing sites."

I looked again at the long tube that towered over us, and it felt like the universe came crashing down on me. It was like I could trace a single line from the first telescopes made in Holland, through Galaleo and Newton and Lowell to us here standing under this massive telescope. I had been growing more interested in the actual science of Astronomy, but since I was a History Major I knew the history of science but not really what it all meant.

The next morning I picked some flowers from Aunt Gillian's garden and Becca and I lay them at Lowell's tomb, which was located just outside of the Clark Telescope dome. Becca presented me with my first Astronomy book, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I finished it that day, and then devoured his lectures on YouTube.

The outside temperature rose. The sexual tension kept climbing, too. Even though we snuck off all the time to talk in out-of-the-way areas of the observatory—often cleaning old equipment or sweeping forgotten paths at the same time to keep Beth happy—we never kissed. In fact, we did nothing more than an occasional brush of an arm or hand against each other while we worked. But the more we talked, the more I fell in love with Rebecca

My phone rang when I got home from work one day.

"Hello?"

"Jeremy, why is it that you never call me?" my mom said evenly.

"Hi, Mom, what's up?"

"Other than having a son who never thinks about me? Nothing," she said, her sarcasm clear.

It was a ritual we had, and I was used to the steps. She would call and nag me about not calling. I would apologize. Then we would laugh and chat for a while. It seemed weird, but it was something we had always done when I was away.

"You never call me, either," I said, playing out the next part of the conversation.

"I just did."

"Sorry, Mom. What's up?"

"I want to hear about your life! How is living with Gillian and Sam? Are you enjoying your work? Have you made any friends?"

"Good, good, and yes," I said.

"What's her name?" Mom asked.

"Aunt Gillian!" I called out. "What have you been telling my mom?"

"I haven't told my sister anything!" Aunt Gillian called back from the kitchen.

"That was me," Aunt Sam called from the living room.

"Aunt Sam! Come on..." I shouted. Then I sighed. "Her name is Becca, Mom. And she's just a friend."

"That's not what I heard. Tell me about her."

"She is one of Aunt G's students. She taught me how to do the tours. We're just friends. I wish there were more to tell, but really, that's it."

"So, does she like you back?"

"I don't know. I think so. I mean, I know she does as a friend, but I don't know about more than that."

"Hmm," Mom said. "How have you been feeling?"

"Less tired. I don't know if that is from being healthier, or the air, or what."

"Have you found a doctor to book you in for your next PET scan?"

"I haven't, but I will.."

"How are your panic attacks?" she asked.

Lymphoma fucks up your blood, right? And oxygen in your blood helps to keep your stress hormones under control. Well I had a bad problem with Anxiety and Panic attacks. The first one, not surprising, was just after I got the diagnosis. My heart literally hurt, and I couldn't stop my racing thoughts and my bodies' instinct to run away. I had learned through the course of my treatment how to handle these kinds of things, so I could cope with them much better, but they still sucked.