Infinite Mid-Night

She stirs restlessly on her bed, her fitful sleep interrupted by a feverish desire for cold. It's a hot summer night. She moves to the other side of the bed, looking for sweet coldness and relief, but this side is as hot as the other. She flips the pillow, kicks the single sheet, and sips at water. She bathes her hair with cool flecks from her cup. Then it just goes sticky and warm.

It's a hot summer night. There is no breeze, but somehow, the sickly sweet fragrance of magnolias rides an invisible current through the open window. She sneezes, and sighs. Somewhere in the distance, a dog howls at the moon. Cats are fighting on the neighbour's porch. She hears a zing every time a mosquito hits the insect killer light, and is fried into oblivion. She is frying too.

It's a hot summer night, about midnight in the morning. She is impatient for sleep, wanting the absolution from the scorching heat. She doesn't want to look at the thermometer. It would just make her feel sick.

Feet sink into the beige carpet, and protest mildly at the new weight. She moves to the window and impatiently brushes a curtain aside. The cats look up at the new intruder in their night, and leave. The dog has stopped howling. All is quiet.

Padding like a panther, she slowly moves out the doorway and downstairs. Through the hall, out the door, onto the verandah.

She sits on the verandah, knees drawn in, arms circling her knees, slowly rocking backwards and forwards. She looks at the night sky, and murmurs the names of the constellations she sees and knows.

...orion...
...crux...
...canis major...

And considers infinity, as she names the galaxies. She counts constellations, names stars. Considers the gas atoms in each star. And knows this is infinity, same as an expanding universe. One is infinity. The universe is one. The universe is expanding constantly, as is infinity. As the universe expands, so does time. Time expands at the same rate as infinity. Infinity, is to be one.

She smiles gently at the stars, the stars look down and smile back. It's still a hot summer's night. Still smiling, still rocking, she stays curled up on the porch looking at the stars and beyond until the night relents and a cool release envelops her.