Some like it hot! Or; Starry Surprise

The air, a spotlight on the pond, and the green, freshly cut grass, are the first things I notice. The air; warm and cool simultaneously. Perfection.
My chest is burning from a few hours before spent unprotected in the sun.
Tonight: a friend’s birthday celebration on a sultry Saturday evening. The theme: a 60’s inspired open air film theatre.

We turn the corner and a make-shift theatre in the middle of a farm with sofas and chairs, old and new, draped in rugs of various colours and patterns greets us. Popcorn in Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets wrapped in wilting paper from the moist air with printed pictures of the screen goddess, Marilyn Monroe. A glorious display of all things sweet and sour, and dairy.
The bar; an array of cocktail paraphernalia, any drink you can dream up is yours. I choose coke.

The light from the stars and from the candles and Sting singing Arabic tunes, softly, brings about a mood so subtle and after chit chatting for a while the movie starts. A classic: Some like It Hot.
And as the movie begins so do the childish antics; popcorn throwing, French kissing in the back row, giggling.
And then: the money shot; Marilyn Monroe aka Sugar, strutting in black and white toward the camera with smoke from the train in the background and a pout placed perfectly on her famous mouth.

It occurred to me right then, as I looked up at the sky.
I realised I hadn’t seen stars in what seemed like too long a time. Like I had simply forgotten them. Where had they been?
Until then, until that very moment, I hadn’t seen one in how long?
And so many? As hard as I tried I could not remember. I looked up at the arcane beauty of it, of them, there hanging in the black.
The idea of them returned to me once more and after that night I told myself I would begin to see them again, everywhere.
I realised if we forget something so important and incredible exists, we can’t see it anymore.
A lot like love.

And just before leaving; Emil said he had something to show me.
He led me down to the water and I saw that the stars were perfectly reflected in the liquid, so that it seemed like we were looking down at the night sky.

Happy birthday Yvette! And,
Pookie; you’re the berries!