By Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner, Parents' Source, May 20, 2001

One of the last nights of summer I happened to be up at three in the morning. [My daughter] Skye had a nightmare and [my son] Dash wanted a glass of water. Ruby the dog, seeing all the commotion, wanted to go out. After everyone went back to sleep, I couldn't. So I went to the bedroom window and, quite by accident, looked up.

A flash of light like something out of a sci-fi movie blazed across the sky. Seconds later, two more meteors shot across the stars. Then came still more. I soon realized that I'd blundered onto the Perseid meteor shower, an annual bonanza known only to astronomers and insomniacs.

I woke [my husband] Malcolm, and the two of us stood on the deck and watched the shooting stars. It was like the Fourth of July, only better. Soon Dash wandered downstairs and joined us. He got chilled, so we wrapped him in a blanket. The three of us watched the firework display for a long time.

When it became clear that this was no teaser but a full-blown production, we knew we'd better wake Skye, or she'd never forgive us for leaving her out.

We pulled a mattress onto the deck and all of us lay on our backs, snuggled under down comforters, watching the stars. We spotted Jupiter and the Pleiades. The kids found their own constellations: "That's the Pancake Turner constellation." "Look over there, that's the Doghouse."

And all the while, meteors of different colors whizzed overhead. Some were "streakers," brief spurts of light that barely appeared before vanishing. Others were "flamers," great bursts of orange light, with comet-like tails. Dash informed us that they were very fast spaceships traveling from one star to another. Skye declared we were watching "star soup."

The four of us lay side by side, experiencing something more wonderful than Disneyland, the waterslides, carnival rides, or anything we've ever paid for. The kids spoke in hushed tones, feeling the importance of this magnificent event.

As I lay there, I realized it had been an awfully long time since I had just looked up. And it had been an awfully long time since I'd really listened to our children. No one had to be the parent and tell anyone to do anything. We were just four kids enjoying the wonder of the universe.

We watched the stars until they blinked out with the dawn. As we finally drifted off to sleep, Malcolm murmured, "You know? It doesn't get any better than this."

Excerpted from I'm Counting to 10. . . by Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner. Published 2001 by Sorin Books, Box 1006, Notre Dame, IN 46556. Used with permission of the publisher. To order, call 800-282- 1865 or visit www.sorinbooks.com.

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