The Constellations

The buildings and church steeples

THE Buildings and cHurcH sTEEplEs were black against the last blue-green light of day. Venus glimmered far above. Eric inched forward on the platform to see it. “Not so close to the edge!” Emma yelled, pulling him back. “Stay out of the blue area.” Eric instead studied those around him. An old, large black woman stood tapping her foot to the tune she hummed. A balding young man dressed in hospital scrubs paged quickly through a much-abused Sun-Times. Near him a young woman with long, brown hair chewed at her gum,and when she caught Eric looking she gave him a smile. As Eric turned back to Emma he noticed a stern-looking man dressed in black, thoughtfully strolling down the platform, the night breeze whipping at the helixes of hair dropping from beneath a wide-brimmed hat. The longer they waited, the more people arrived, young men talking and tired cleaning ladies rolling their eyes and waving their arms as they complained in Polish about their workdays. The train’s headlights came into view. With much clattering it whipped onto the track alongside the platform. Eric flinched and stepped back, even as the others crowded forward to where they guessed the doors would stop. Exasperated, Emma called for him above the noise and smacked her thigh to underline the urgency. Crowding in with the rest, he took special pleasure in stepping into the blue area. Emma took a seat next to the man in scrubs. Rather than stray in search of a place to sit, Eric took hold of the bar near her seat with both hands and, as always, stumbled when the train pulled from the platform. Through the doors he watched Venus as it followed them north. At home he accepted a kiss atop the head from Deb and explained his day as fast as he could. Fergus’s typewriter clattered behind the bedroom door. 172 The Constellations “Do you have homework?” Deb said. “I have to rehearse my presentation.” “That’s all?” “And Spanish,” Eric added.“Spanish at school isn’t helping me. On the train I can’t understand people when they’re talking in it.” “They’re just talking fast,” Deb said, not looking up from cutting onions.“Go rehearse.” “Will you listen?” Eric asked. “Later. Go practice on Aidan.” Aidan sat in his mechanical swing looking confused. After turning off the swing Eric gently brought the seat to a stop.Aidan looked just as confused. Eric dragged over a foot rest, arranged his presentation on the floor, and after a pause to clear his throat picked up a sheet of paper. “Presenting a report on northern constellations by Eric Conlon ,” he said.“I think you will like this part, Aidan. The Big Dipper is also called Ursa Major. It is one of the most recognized constellations. In other parts of the world, people have thought the shape looked like a chariot, a bull, or a wild boar. In France, instead of the Big Dipper, it is called the Big Saucepan.” He placed his flashlight in the can’s open end and turned it on. Ursa Major appeared on the fireplace cover. “All of its stars are of the third magnitude or brighter, making the Big Dipper very easy to see. It’s a circumpolar constellation . This means it’s seen every night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s never seen in the Southern Hemisphere because it turns around Polaris, the North Star.” Eric now returned to addressing Aidan. “Ursa Major means Great Bear,” he said. “It moves around the Pole Star that’s in the tail of the Little Bear. The Little Bear, Ursa Minor, can be found by using the stars at the end of the Big Saucepan and going up twenty-eight and three-quarters degrees. My father told me once that the Big Bear circles the Little Bear to protect him.” # # # ...