Friday arrives with the promise of a busy night. Not for Sarah, who prefers to stay at home sitting on the roof, watching the stars paint the night sky.
Near her house there is a burrowing owl nest. On many nights, one of them lands on the wall in front of her house, but never sings. It only watches, lying in wait, silently waiting for insects and rodents, while other owls sing not very far away.
One night, Sarah saw the owl fly low along the wall of a nearby house, and return with something held between its claws. She could not identify what it was in the darkness, but she believes it was a rat. They usually appear occasionally around there, entering and leaving the sewers.
Something curious happens sometimes.
Another owl sings hidden in the street and, whenever Sarah hears that specific sound, she goes into her room, turns off the lights and places three pillows lined up under the blanket.
It is already past eleven at night.
With her eyes closed and focused on listening, the most diverse melodies of the night begin to reveal themselves. The sound of cars wandering through the streets and dogs barking as if they were talking at a distance.
However, there is one in particular that she really hopes to hear tonight.
The wait has already lasted too long. A little more, and the pillows will lose their place.
A few minutes pass and there it is.
"Uííííííííííí qíqíqíqíííííí"
Sarah opens her eyes.
On the wall, first appears the silent owl, staring at something on the other side. It seems curious, and it is not the only one. A quick glance along the entire length of the wall, and there appears a head and then an arm. The sound of the mysterious owl echoes again.
There is her cue.
Sarah climbs down from the roof and runs along the side wall, reaching the front part of the house, near the balcony of her room. With a small jump, she reaches the ledge. She closes the door, returns to the side wall, and follows it to the sidewalk.
"You took long enough! We were already leaving!"
"Took long? I have been waiting for more than an hour! You are the ones who are late!" Sarah snaps in a low tone, while finishing climbing down.
"Yeeeah... we had some setbacks..." Bernardo looks away.
"Tell the truth, you were making out somewhere!" Sarah teases them, reaching the sidewalk.
"I told us not to stall." With a shy smile on her face, Marcela throws Bernardo to the wolves.
"Uh-huh... sure! To begin with, the idea was all yours!" Now it is Bernardo who exposes Marcela.
"Hey, you two can stop, I do not mind that you want to enjoy moments together, but you act as if I do not know anything."
"It is just that we do not want to make you third wheel, it must be annoying." Bernardo makes up another excuse while getting on a bicycle.
"There, now you act as if I have not been third wheeling since last year, even that owl over there had already noticed the vibe. Except you."
Sarah gets on the other bicycle, and soon after Marcela gets on the back.
For a moment Sarah senses a smell that catches her attention. It comes from a bag in the bicycle basket. Before even starting to pedal, she stops everything and looks at Marcela over her shoulder.
"Is that what I think it is?"
Sarah looks like a tracking dog in search of something.
Bernardo looks at the two of them as if he were looking at two flowers in a flowerbed. One looks like a beautiful and delicate daisy, that shakes entirely with any breeze. The other, imposing and firm like a rose.
Then he lets out a few laughs while finishing witnessing the scene.
"Heeey, be quiet!" Sarah calls his attention.
Too late.
They hear the sound of a door opening. And they realize it comes from her parents' room.
Dragging the bicycles, they hide behind the wall.
A light appears, illuminating a part of the sidewalk and the street. Leila appears on the balcony with the heavy look of someone who just woke up. She casts looks forward and downward, but cannot see anything except the poor owl with its head turned backward as if complaining about the light.
After staring at the owl for a few seconds.
"Cool... coool..."
Leila attempts an unlikely dialogue with the owl, which tilts its head sideways while staring at her.
She sighs lightly, lets out a brief smile, and goes back inside, turning off the light.
Sarah has her hand over her mouth holding back loud laughter. After a few seconds with the light gone, they get on the bicycles and head to the same destination as so many other starry nights.
After 15 minutes on their N2-powered bicycles, passing through stairways and sidewalks, they arrive at a communication tower surrounded by fences. They lean the bicycles there near a tree and begin to walk until reaching one of the support bars.
There is a part of the fence that is cut, Bernardo pulls it and the two pass. On the inside, Sarah holds the fence so he can enter. Then the three head toward the base of the tower.
Sarah leads, followed by Marcela and then Bernardo. After almost seven minutes of climbing, they reach the platform at the top. Even having gone there so many times, it always feels like the first and last time.
The wind that does not reach the ground, there blows fully and freely.
The view of the city and the horizon is not even that beautiful, but what is above the horizon... that is. The stars shine as if they were supernovas sending their last rays of light to the most distant corners of the dark immensity of space, as if they wanted to say: I was here.
Even among lovers of the stars, only some can feel empathy for those points that to our eyes are shining together, however, in their own perspectives, solitary, they emanate light to all sides.
Sarah watches them with admiration.
The few who can accept her are right there, by her side, lying down and caressing each other's hair. Even so, the feeling that takes her heart is of being unique. Similar to the others only in appearance.
Shining alone in the immensity of the dark.
She is sitting cross-legged holding a container and eating passion fruit with sugar. The sour taste sometimes draws grimaces, provoking laughter. It is no longer possible to know whether Marcela brings her passion fruit out of friendship or to see her expressions.
After almost an hour and a half talking and laughing, Marcela gets up and sits beside Sarah and rests her head on her shoulder. Bernardo does the same. A soft breeze comes to mess up their hair while gently touching their faces.
With eyes closed, Sarah releases more than the air trapped in her lungs, and forms a closed-mouth smile.
"Look Sarah, today the moon did not come, so the stars can shine without being overshadowed." Bernardo comments, resting his head on one of her legs.
"Today the sky is less striking, but it is still beautiful." Marcela takes the moment and places her head on the other leg.
Sarah then lies down with her arms crossed behind her head.
"It is as if someone had reached out and stolen the moon from the sky. Imagine how sad it would be if it never came back." Bernardo throws words into the air while extending his hand upward and closing it above.
"Even if it cannot be seen now, it is out there and will return soon." Marcela adds to the dialogue while casting looks upward.
A smile appears on Sarah's face as she closes her eyes and tries to listen to the sounds of the night.
"Be quiet," Sarah murmurs.
"Cool..."
"Coool..."
Bernardo and Marcela imitate Sarah's mother, which makes her start laughing. And it ends up infecting the two.
This small part of the world is only theirs.
For now.