... A quiet chaos is contained in the tiny tent near the willow tree. This is their first night sleeping out; a rite of passage. The girls don’t want to have to go into the house to sleep but still they are too excited to just lie there and go to sleep. “Nana,” Manda whispers loudly enough to make me jump, “did you see any yet?”

“No honey,” I answer, “not yet. It’s getting pretty late go to sleep and if they come we’ll come get you. Okay?”

“Okay,” she mutters. I glance over toward her Mom and Dad in the hope that they won’t make them go inside. So far so good, they’re just staring at the sky shifting their weight in an effort to relax the tightness in their necks. And so we sit silent enjoying the peace and we wait.

My mind keeps drifting back to two different times in my memory. The first is of my first camping trip in the backyard. We slept in an old canvas army salvage pup tent under the Avocado Trees. My heart jumps at the memory of how excited I was. I don’t think any of us got more than a few hours sleep and surely my parents got none at all that night. To this day, I still love to sleep outside under the stars when I can.

The more recent was a night just like this about thirty years ago when we, all of my friends and their kids, laid on the shore at Yokohama Bay watching the sky. I can’t remember if it was summer like tonight, but the sky wasn’t nearly as clear as it gets here in Iowa. I wonder if it is so clear here because we are so far north or if it is because of the lack of pollution? Probably because we are north, I think, Hawaii was pretty smog free then. Anyway, we waited all night. Some smoked dope, others drank wine and some did both. We talked and played the mandolin and waited. Holly was there that night too. More than likely she doesn’t remember it. She was too young, only four or five then. The children ran up and down the beach looking for Fiddler Crabs and shells, played ball, and as difficult as it was for them, they stayed out of the surf. One by one they came up to the parachute we’d put down on the sand and fell asleep watching the sky.

It was a wonderful night but never did we see a meteor, not one. For days the television news had enticed us with the “biggest meteor shower in years. The heavens will give us the best light show ever!” We all prayed it would be clear that night, no fog to ruin the show, and every one of us knew we’d be tired when we went to work the next morning. Not one! Those of us who had not drunk the wine or partaken of the weed could not convince those who had that they hadn’t missed anything. “Really,” we assured them, “not a single one.”

The next evening I was exhausted as I fed Holly and Nate supper while listening to the evening news. The weather announcer apologized for misinforming us. “I was mistaken,” he said brightly with a laugh in his tone, “ the meteors came down in Australia last night, not over Hawaii as I thought they would. I’m told we missed a great show!”

“You idiot! You stupid idiot,” I griped out loud to no one.

I’m hoping tonight won’t be a repeat....