“Changing Skies”

“As if to illustrate that principle which has been called God’s humor, the wit of fate, and synchronicity, the sky had cleared as Skylar left the club for his dorm room. The new moon, slim but bright, shone like a parenthesis around emptiness. Venus and Jupiter, situated above the moon, looked like corners of a necklace from which a pendant hung. There were no stars to be seen. How different the campus and the sky looked to Skylar now. The traps and nets he had earlier seen in the trees were no more. The trees had become mighty and majestic friends, who, eager to caress the sky, stretched their arms up to it in abandoned fervor. The once-bullying beeches now stood benignly beside him, calling him to them, their smooth, gray boles like a grandfather’s trousered legs that an affectionate toddler rushes to tightly hug. McCosh Walk had shed its appearance as a rickety rope bridge and now extended like a solid, stone path to known destinations. The cupola of the sky, no longer weighed down on him, empty and black; instead, it bespoke unlimited possibility and endless mystery. Although no one else was around, Skylar felt companionship with the stones, bushes, and buildings. The Head of a Woman now smiled at him with the huge eyes and compressed mouth of a surprised but fascinated child.”