1. Dominic

No matter how many times I saw it, I felt my spirits soar whenever I crested a tall hill, giving me a view for miles. It always seemed to me like the deep forests of Maine were stretching themselves out just for me. The verdant majesty of spring and summer had given way to glowing oranges and burning reds, enhanced by the brilliant sunset. As my truck rumbled over one of the taller hills, it looked as if the entire forest was aflame.

Taking a deep breath, I savored the rich smell of the land I’d lived and worked on. It didn’t matter that the temperature outside had been steadily dropping with the setting of the sun. The heater in my truck was more than enough to ward off the chill, allowing me to enjoy the fresh air. Soon, winter would come, burying everything in a sleepy blanket of snow and ice, and I would have more time than I knew what to do with.

The radio burst to life once more, piercing through my peaceful reverie with a screech. Swearing softly, I fiddled with the dials, bringing the volume down to a tolerable level. The radio had been touchy from the moment I started to make my way back. It had shut down completely halfway home, without the customary white noise.

The screeching halted, bringing back the familiar sound of the local DJ. “And as I’m sure you folks know, we’ve got Sebastian Mercouri in here tonight. Former native of our fine town, and now an astronomer all the way from New York. Sebastian Mercouri has come all the way up to Hilsbury to see the Northern Lights, isn’t that right?”

“Absolutely, it’s not often one can view a spectacular display of Mother Nature, and also doing it from the familiar sights of your own home town.”

I raised a brow as I listened to the two men converse. I didn’t recognize the second voice, but I thought it sounded intelligent and reasonably confident. I knew the last name however, having been familiar with the Mercouri family for years. They were kind, hardworking people, and I wasn’t surprised to learn their son had gone on to do, what I considered, a demanding vocation.

Sebastian continued. “The clear skies around the area will give everyone in the county a clear view of the lights. Geomagnetic storms of this intensity, this one is being rated as what we refer to as a G3 storm, will extend possibly as far south in the country as Illinois. However, it does mean some of your listeners might be experiencing some issues with their radios, as radio frequencies will be thrown into chaos by the storm.”

A loud screech pierced through the transmission, and I reached for the dial again. Before my fingers could turn it, however, I realized the screeching wasn’t mechanical. It was in fact a series of screams and squeals in a pitch I automatically associated with excited teenage girls.

“Lex is showing up! He just tweeted it!”

The DJ chuckled, forced to raise his voice to be heard clearly over the fuss. “And as I’m sure you all just heard for yourselves, celebrity actor Lex will be making an appearance as well. The question on everyone’s mind is whether he’s coming to get a bit of inspiration from the Lights, or from the town.”

“Maybe it’s on your mind,” I said, turning off the radio.

I would have found the talk about the Northern Lights more interesting. That at least had a grounding in something I could appreciate, though not necessarily understand. Sometimes I thought I might have made a fine scientist, if it wasn’t for my tendency to dislike anything which required me to sit still and study a piece of paper or a board for more than ten minutes at a time. Still, I understood the rigorous pursuit of science, finding it practical and sensible. It might not have been for me, but I respected anyone whose mind and personality pushed them to pursue the mysteries of the world.

Not that I couldn’t enjoy a good mystery myself, I just preferred them from the comfort of my own home. I might idly wonder how the Northern Lights appeared, but I wouldn’t delve too deep. I would stand outside and appreciate their beauty, just as I appreciated the natural beauty of the land around me. However, that was enough for me, particularly when I had a large harvest waiting for me. I would happily leave the mysteries of the universe to someone else, while I made sure I would survive through the winter.

The road dipped down into the shadows beneath the boughs of the trees where the only real color other than brown and fading green, was the brilliant sky overhead. That was, except for a bright spot about a quarter of a mile down from where I drove.

Frowning, I slowed the truck, leaning forward to try and make sense of what I was seeing. As I drew closer, I realized that not only was it a person, but someone holding their thumb out in an old and universal gesture for help.

Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a man, though no one I’d ever seen before. The man’s bright hair, bleached so hard it was practically white, was the least obvious thing about him. His rucksack alone looked as if it had been stitched together from patches of every color possible. Dangling not only from the overstuffed sack, but from the man’s wrists and neck, was an assortment of such various objects, I had no idea how the stranger could tolerate it. At a glance, I saw multicolored bracelets of different sizes, a silver band, and a few circles of strings with what looked like charms dangling from them.

So, distracted by the human peacock, I forgot to roll down the window to hear the man’s words. For a moment, I was struck by the narrow, dainty features of the hitchhiker. If it wasn’t for the brilliant collection of accessories covering him, he might have made a striking figure. As it was, I still thought he was striking, but for all the gaudiest and tasteless reasons.

“I didn’t think anyone was going to show up out here and I was going to have to walk the whole way.”

The man’s voice was a little higher in pitch than I customarily attributed to men. However, there seemed something both forced and snooty about it. It went a long way toward convincing me that I hadn’t found myself a local from some far-flung part of the county, but a lost city boy.

I smiled, however, hiding my thoughts. “You’re lucky, I’m the only one who’s bound to come out this way at this time of day. Name’s Dominic, Dominic Stone.”

“I’m Cielo.”

The name almost forced me to drop my friendly smile, and I felt it falter. It was just the sort of name I expected.

I cleared my throat. “Well, Cielo, what’re you doing around here? You don’t come from Hilsbury, and you don’t strike me as the sort to come from somewhere else in the county either.”

Cielo’s responding snort almost caused my smile to sour on the spot. “No, I’m from New York. I came out here to see the Aurora Borealis.”

It was the technical term, which I might have been willing to ignore, save for the fact that I didn’t like the way he said it. It was laden with pretention and that air of snootiness I’d heard in his derisive snort. In the span of thirty seconds, he had managed to make me want as little to do with him as possible. However, the man was walking along the road in the middle of nowhere with night coming fast, and I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if I left him to freeze.

I chuckled. “Bit early for that isn’t it? Not happening for another week or so.”

“My friends are joining me, and we just wanted to have the whole experience.”

“The experience,” I repeated neutrally.

He nodded energetically. “Yeah, we’re all artists and wanted to get a feel for the place before the aurora showed up. They were supposed to be here too, but well, they met some cool guy along the way with this seventy’s car. So, they’re a little bit behind but they’re coming.”

To me, it sounded like he was trying to convince himself. I didn’t exactly trust the word of city people, especially from somewhere like New York. They might consider people like me and the other citizens of Hilsbury to be backward, but I prided myself and others on our straight forward, hardworking nature. Sure, it wasn’t anything fancy, but it was honest living, which was better in my opinion.

I leaned over, opening the passenger door with a loud squeal. I didn’t miss the wince and apprehensive look in Cielo’s eyes as he stepped away from the truck.

“The door ain’t gonna fall off, now hop in before you freeze,” I said.

Cielo hesitated, and I fought to not roll my eyes. My truck was nowhere near as nice as the vehicles he was no doubt used to. But if he didn’t want to walk to wherever he was headed and risk getting caught in the freezing cold as night fell, he would inevitably have to hop into the truck.

Sure enough, he shivered against the cooling air, which seemed to make up his mind. Smiling in a way I was sure was meant to be grateful, Cielo pulled himself up into the truck. It was only once he had situated himself in the seat, tucking his rucksack between his legs, that I got a better look at him. The bag was so large and overstuffed I had thought he just looked small in comparison, when in reality, the man really was that small.

He was nearly a head shorter than me. His narrow frame would have required three of him to match my broad chest. While watching him nervously pull the seatbelt over his trim waist, I was sure I could have easily wrapped my hands around his hips. The thought trickled through my mind with an enticing ease that I didn’t like, and I forced my attention back to the road once again.

“Alright, so where are you supposed to be staying?” I asked.

“There’s supposed to be this really good camping spot up ahead,” he said.

I cocked a brow. “Camping? You do know it gets cold up here at night, right? And no offense, but there ain’t much to you. You’re gonna freeze.”

Cielo looked over at me with a frown. It amused me that he was forced to look up in order to meet my eyes. The thought seemed to occur to him as well, whose sudden look of apprehension amused me even further. It was as if he only just realized he’d hopped into the truck of a man several times his size, in the middle of nowhere. I chose to ignore the look, pushing down on the gas pedal as I waited for him to recover.

He cleared his throat. “Uh, well, I have a space heater, so I’ll be just fine.”

I chuckled. “I don’t think you understand how cold it actually gets.”

“I’ll be fine.”

It was a harmless enough statement, but I felt a flare of irritation at the haughtiness in Cielo’s voice. It was enough that he didn’t have to turn up his nose, it was insinuated. Despite my initial dislike of the man, I really had been trying to warn him about how dangerously cold it could get. While the winters in Maine were utter hell, usually reserved for the lowest circles of the underworld, the autumn wasn’t much easier. But if the city boy wanted to rough it out in the freezing wilderness without taking the advice of some hick, then I was more than willing to let him.

He pulled his phone out, frowning down at the screen. “There’s supposed to be a field up here. The halfway point between the town and some orchard.”

My orchard, but I wasn’t going to bother telling him that. Instead I grunted, nodding my head and driving in silence. My lack of conversation seemed to unnerve Cielo even more, who was trying to sneak glances at me without being noticed. He wasn’t as subtle as he perhaps thought he was, but I wasn’t in the mood to dispel his illusions.

It did however have the unintended effect of giving me different angles to see him from. Even if he hadn’t been dressed brightly enough to stand out at a children’s carnival, his features would have marked him as an outsider. The people of Hilsbury and the surrounding area were typically of a thicker, hardier build.

To my growing annoyance, I found I rather liked looking at Cielo, and liked his warm brown eyes looking at me. There was something ethereal and otherworldly about him, which had nothing to do with the airs he put on. I found myself glancing sidelong whenever he averted his eyes, tracing the shape of his mouth and face. He wasn’t scrawny, but what muscle he had appeared lithe and sleek. I could very easily imagine him beneath me, small body dwarfed by mine, as our contrasting skin, copper versus ivory, pressed against one another.

“There it is… I think,” he said hastily, pointing.

Relieved to be pulled out of my distracting thoughts, I pulled in to the curb beside the large field. I didn’t like Cielo, and I didn’t like the temptation he inadvertently represented. It had been a little while since I had allowed myself to make the several hours drive, to where I both wouldn’t be seen by anyone who knew me, and where I could satiate myself. If I was growing tempted by the sight of someone as irritating as this strange city boy, then I thought it might be time to take another trip.

“There you are,” I said evenly.

Cielo wrestled with the door of the truck, wincing when its hinges squealed as he threw his body weight against it. I watched impassively as he then had to hop down and wrestle the oversized rucksack from the floor of the truck. I was a little impressed that so small a man could carry the thing around without falling over.

“Thanks,” he said, eyes darting around.

I gave him my most warm and charming smile. “No problem. And I wish you the best of luck with the bears. They do a bit of wandering around here while they get ready for the snow.”

His face somehow managed to go paler as I drove off. Feeling a little better, I chuckled to myself as I made my way home.

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