Skylar and John chased each other around his back yard. Yielding light sabers they imitated the sounds in the movies. The clashing of the plastic toys and their laughter reverberated off the fence. Back and forth, jumping over roots, ducking through bushes, the pair spent the last of the sunset hour play fighting as if they were much younger than they actually were.
The telescope stood in the middle of the yard, two chairs set up next to it. When the pair finally sat down the moon shone down on them. John chugged his water bottle while Skylar sipped.
John took a deep breath as he popped the cap closed on his bottle. “We should binge the Star Wars movies.”
“And shows.” Skylar leaned their head back against the cloth chair back and looked at the stars sprinkled across the sky. “You said there were shows too.”
“Yeah!” John laughed. “It’ll be so cool to show you them since you’ve never seen them.”
“But first,” Skylar pointed to the telescope, “You promised to show me Uranus.”
He snorted. “Of course, out off all the jokes, this is the one you get right the first time.” Leaning forward, a grin on his face, he looked through the telescope.
“I’m learning!” Skylar laughed and threw their hands in the air.
“Congratulations.” John leaned back and gestured to the telescope. “Take at look at Uranus.” They giggled about the funny planet name. Laughing didn’t help Skylar distinguish which of the little glowing dots was Uranus, it was cool to observe the blue shine from the far off gas giant.
While John’s telescope wasn’t powerful enough to see the far off planet of Qwortar, Skylar did point it in the right direction.
“It’s pretty much a straight shot between Polaris A and B for a long time.”
“Are you excited to go home?” John tilted his head.
“Yeah.” Skylar knew they had to leave. The sooner the better with their ship full of food and plants. Of course, after all this time on Earth, leaving was going to be bittersweet.
Skylar smiled before John leaned back over the eyepiece. Skylar had plenty more stories about the Universe while the night air cooled their sweat. It was a peaceful night, but it left Skylar brooding over the fate of their home planet and the responsibility they decided to shoulder.
Word count: 394
May the Fourth be with you!
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