Crooked Smile (WINNER of the MJFA'S 2017)

Chapter 16 - Among the Stars, Part 2

Marilyn didn't move. She just looked at the outstretched hand.
"Can't you let go?" Michael asked after a moment of silence, and then he climbed higher still, until he reached her level, one foot between hers, the other a little lower for a better hold. "Give me your hand!" he repeated.
Being taller than Marilyn, his face was almost level with hers, even though his weight rested on a stone below her. He was leaning towards her, reaching for where her fingers held on to the little tree as if her life depended on it. Despite the darkness she could see his face now, his shining eyes and brilliant teeth and a friendly smile that played around both. He was so close she could smell him, too, a warm, soft, musk fragrance that filled her lungs and engulfed her.

Then his reaching fingers touched her forearm. They felt warm and soft and clean, as they travelled along her wrist and hand, and then gently loosened her grip by slipping between her palm and the tree.
"It's okay. Don't be scared. I won't let you fall. Trust me. Give me your hand."

Marilyn couldn't do anything but stare into his face. The spot where his fingers had first touched her arm seemed to glow, even though they had long moved on. She let him remove her hand and held on to his. His arm was firm as she struggled for balance. It felt as if she was holding on to a stone figure.
He smiled, reassuring her.
Tentatively, she let go of the tree with her other hand as well and tried to stand straight, but a piece of wood or stone gave way underfoot. She screamed. It felt like falling. Falling downhill into the vast blackness in which she couldn't see, onto rocks, into nothingness. Michael's other hand closed around her elbow and without thinking she grabbed his upper arm.
He gave a brief and joyful laugh. "I said I wasn't going to let you fall! Trust me!"
"Okay." It was only a whisper.
"Okay! Come. It's much better over there."
Marilyn kept looking at his face.
"You have to look down at where you place your feet, you know?"

Indeed, the ground was much better a few feet down and to the left.
"I'm sorry I made you climb down here," Michael said in a low voice. "Maybe that wasn't a good idea. But it's such a nice place to see the stars."
And he let go of Marilyn's hand.
"No, I'm happy we did come down here..." she murmured.

Yet a bit farther down, there was a clearing in the shrubbery. It truly was an enchanted place. Of course it wasn't a grassy meadow, but there were no bushes, just some fairly shallow plants. The bushes that grew all around encircled the clearing, and when they sat down, nothing could be seen except the sky high above them.

Due to the lights, and the smog over LA reflecting it, only the brightest stars could be seen from the streets of Encino. But up here on the Encino Hills, hidden in the shadows of the bush land, the stars were fairly clear.
Marilyn gasped. "This is so beautiful!" she said in a low whisper, as if loud voices could maybe drive them off.
"Isn't it?" she heard his hushed voice a few feet away. "I come here a lot. I love the stars! What do you know about them?"

Marilyn had to admit that she knew near to nothing about the stars.
"Do you see that one over there?"
She turned to him to see in which direction he was pointing. "Which one?"
"That one."
She looked at the sky again. "No..."
There was his soft laugh again, and she heard the rustling of the shallow scrubs that they sat in when he got up and came over. He crouched down behind her and stretched his pointing arm over her shoulder close to her face. "That one. Do you see it now?"
"Oh, yes..." His proximity was distracting. She could even feel his warmth against her back, although he wasn't touching her.
"That's Polaris, the North Star. It's always there. All the other stars move because the earth is turning, but this one is always there. It's a guide. Where that star stands, there's always North." He went back to where he had sat before, and Marilyn wished he hadn't. "So South is in the opposite direction. Consequently, West is behind us and we are looking east. We are looking out over L.A., so it's true. But even if we would get lost, with the help of the North Star, we'd find our way back."
"A guiding star..." Marilyn said quietly.
"Yes. A guiding star."
"The other night I got lost walking around. If I had known that star, maybe I wouldn't have."
"You got lost walking around Encino?" There was some more rustling of leaves and twigs as he stretched his body out on the ground and folded his arms behind his head. "You are one L.A. kid!"
"I'm not really an L.A. kid," Marilyn said in an exaggerated New England accent, following his example and lying on her back among the tough, little plants, that defied the lack of water up in the hills as well as the lack of soil. "I'm from Maine."
"Oh! I always thought you sounded kinda posh, girl!" His voice was soft and disembodied, now that she couldn't see him anymore.
"Yes, that's what my classmates thought, too, when I came to L.A. That I sounded posh. That I didn't sound black..."
"When did you come here?"
"In 2nd grade. Elementary school."
"Was it hard? To come into a class where everybody was friends already?"
"Yes..."