Astrothesia (as-tro-the’-si-a): A vivid description of stars. One type of enargia.
It was my birthday—December 23rd. I had invited my 3 best friends over to celebrate with me, and most likely bring gifts. Everybody had an excuse for not coming. Bill told me he had to wash his dog. Barbara told me she had already promised to go out on a date with her latest flame. She was hoping to marry the guy, so I understood. Jeff told me that we weren’t really friends and he couldn’t imagine why the hell I would invite him to my birthday party. That hurt.
I was all alone, except for Sniffer my adoring dog. He was odd- looking. A cross between a basset hound and a greyhound, he was two feet tall and fifteen inches long. His one skill was jumping up in the air, which he would reprise every evening when I came from work at the peach cannery.
There were numerous dents in the ceiling from Sniffer hitting it when he jumped. With his long legs and light weight, his average jump was 8-10 feet straight up. It was amazing, but because of this I couldn’t take him out for a walk. He just stayed in my apartment and slept most of his days and nights away on his big blue pillow on the living room floor. It had his name embroidered on it. He loved it.
He barked as he hit the ceiling, and I dug a biscuit for him from out of the tin I kept in the kitchen. At least I wasn’t totally alone on my birthday.
I had baked a chocolate cake. I was going to eat the whole thing after I changed into my pajamas. It was a tough choice. I had three pairs of pajamas. One pair was light blue and were like long underwear. One pair had a black top and Black Watch plaid bottoms. One pair had black bottoms and a black top with Jon Bon Jovi’s smiling face on them. I chose my “Jovis” because they had a festive edge and reminded me of my birthplace: New Jersey. I pulled them on and headed for the kitchen to eat my cake.
As I passed the sliding glass doors in the living room, I looked outside. It was a new moon and it was really dark outside—except for the stars. The sky was loaded with stars—silver white twinkling shards of light—light streaming to Earth from 25 trillion miles away. A trillion is a lot for something to persist, the light seems almost immortal as it courses through the cosmos to come into view. The sparkling lights gave me a sense satisfaction, along with Sniffer, I felt ok alone on my birthday.
I continued on into the kitchen, put 36 candles my chocolate cake, and one dog biscuit. I lit the candles and blew them out, fed the dog biscuit to Sniffer, pulled the candles out of the cake and dug into its fudgy thickness thinking about my dog and the beautiful stars spread across the sky, like fiery holes poked by God in the shroud of darkness, to guide us and delight us.
Then, there was a knock on my door. I opened it and there stood my tree best friends. They yelled “Surprise!” and took turns hugging me. I nearly cried.
