Chapter 3: Night Skies

The rest of the two weeks were a blur of observing, writing, revising, re-revising and revisiting her thesis. Even when the night turned cool, she never wore a stitch of clothing, aside from sandals. A typical day:

At 9:00, a pre-breakfast dip in the lake. At 10:00, breakfast. From 10:30 until 2:00 in the afternoon, work on thesis. (Translation: catch up on sleep missed last night between the midnight swim and the stargazing) From 2:00 to 2:30, lunch. From 2:30 to 8:00, work on thesis (for real this time, incorporating the results of the previous night's observations) From 8:00 to 9:00 at night, supper From 9:00 to 10:00, send and receive e-mails. From 10:00 to 1:00, observations. Usually, it was about 2:00 by the time the last pair was through doing their investigations, then they'd wake up everyone else for a celebratory late-night skinny-dip.

Wednesday night, Colette had gone out for a walk to think about a problem she was having with her thesis, Joseph and JP were cleaning up the supper dishes, and the rest were sitting around the table tapping away on their laptops. Suddenly the door burst open.

"Hi Colette," chirped Judy, then as she realized what she was looking at, " ... Colette? What happened to you?" She was muddy and bits of seaweed were stuck in her hair.

"It's the Creature from the Black Lagoon!" cried Joseph, trying hard not to laugh at the apparition before him.

"I've got it!!!"

"Is it communicable?" Paul enquired politely.

"No, I've managed to get it!!"

"I think you should have thrown it back..." offered Jean-Pierre, picking some seaweed from her locks.

"It's that problem I was having with my thesis. Let me explain, Jennifer, can you hand me some paper and a pencil..."

"No you CANNOT sit here, you're filthy and streaming with wet and you don't have your towel with you to sit on and you're making my notes wet and GO SHOWER NOW! OutoutoutoutOUT!!"

"Come on," Angeline said gently, taking her bedraggled and thoroughly preoccupied student by the elbow. "Someone give me some soap, and follow with her and my towels." She turned back to Colette. "Now, tell me, what was your great idea?"

Soon Colette was babbling in higher-level mathematical formulae with Angeline responding in kind, as they faded into the night. Judy followed them with the towels, bringing her own in case additional physical support was needed.

"Um, where do you think she fell in?" Jennifer wondered.

"Well, the path curves around the lake rather than going straight from the observatory to here," speculated Jean-Pierre. "I'd bet she followed the lights to the cabin and went straight in that weedy part."

"But she's an astrophysicist, or soon will be, surely she knows that light bends near a black hole?"

And with that, everyone groaned and threw their towels at Jennifer.

Afterwards, with Colette cleaned up and scribbling furiously on a pad of paper, Paul, Jennifer and Angeline regaled Jean-Pierre, Joseph and Judy about antics on previous trips:

One trip had a vegan on board. The problem was, she hadn't told anyone, and most of the food supplies had some form of meat in it, either chicken, beef or pork. The poor girl almost starved, resorting to living off of berries she found in the woods and fields around the site.

Another trip some scouts had opted to use the area at the same time. "They got quite an eyeful!" Angeline remembered. She'd offered to do an impromptu astronomy class, but the adults supervising the troop were too concerned it would devolve into an anatomy class instead, and politely moved their charges along to more suitable terrain for textiles — especially after being advised they'd have to extinguish their camp fires.

There was the time they had a devoted fisherman along, who had in turn brought hooks and fishing line. They ended up with plenty of fish dinners — and the surviving fish in the lake ended up with half his tackle.

The next morning, Colette and Judy were lying on towels, working on their tans.

"Colette, did I just see Paul disappear into the infamous tool shed?"

Colette looked out the corner of her eye, hidden behind sunglasses. "Yes, I do believe you did. Yep, here comes Jennifer, right on time."

With that, the two girls softly began counting down, "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one... ," with which Jennifer disappeared into the tool shed after a furtive glance to ensure she was unobserved.

"And liftoff," Colette whispered with satisfaction.

"Think that they think they're fooling anyone?" Judy asked.

"They're not stupid, but love can make you do and believe foolish things. You have a boyfriend?"

"Had one in high school, but we broke up before I started my senior year. There was the boy next door I had the biggest crush on — now THAT is a cliché, isn't it? — but the relationship never went anywhere. He's going to the same university as we are, taking Computer Sciences."

"You should introduce us," advised Colette.

"Not on your LIFE!"

"A-HA!! You DO still like him." Colette grinned at her. "Go up and invite him out. I dare you." She considered for a moment. "Take him to that nude beach just off campus, the one we went to."

"What?!? I could NEVER do anything like that! And besides, don't you have a paper to finish?" Judy whispered back. She was blushing furiously as she counter attacked.

"Sugar, you're trying to change the subject."

"OK ... OK, I'll think about it."

"That's my girl."

"Your turn now. You got a boyfriend?"

"Yep," Colette boasted. "He's working on a degree in Hospitality, and he's got himself a summer job at a Caribbean resort."

"Let me guess. A naturist resort."

"Well, as a matter of fact it is. We met when his parents joined the same club in Virginia my family were members at. I guess I was eight at the time." She snickered. "Love at last sight. He thought girls had cooties back then, and I was still in the 'boys are icky' stage."