Mike laughed ironically at Rachel’s words. “I feel the same way, ja? I am so much older than the rest of you, and that didn’t change with your replacement of Katy. At least you are not younger than Beth, ja? Then it would be crazy.”<br/><br/>For the first time Mike realized he had dismissed Rachel as being part of the whole Katy switch-up fiasco, and he allowed himself to really take her in now. Her hair fluttered perfectly in the nighttime breeze, even thought she struggled with it, and her eyes were bright, probably a little from fear, but not enough to close her personality.<br/><br/>When she asked him whether he knew the constellations he was suddenly brought back to reality, and the notebook. He decided that, if he were going to be embarrassed, it would be better to get it out of the way now instead of at some awkward time in the future. Reluctantly, he reached behind himself to find the notebook, and pulled it from its hiding spot.<br/><br/>“When you came up I was in the middle of making a chart. It’s something I used to do at sea for fun. We had all kinds of technologies and radars, ja? But before that people used the stars to navigate. It’s harder than it looks, for even the first sailors knew the stars moved across the sky, and weren’t in the same place at the same time every night.”<br/><br/>He opened the notebook to his first rough drawing. “I especially like the Southern sky, as I haven’t sailed it nearly as much as the North, ja? Here look,” he took Rachel’s hand gently and placed it in his lap on the notebook. “It’s probably hard to read in the dark, ja?” he laughed. “This star is Achernar, the brightest star in the Southern sky.” He pointed to it, to where it could easily be seen without a telescope. “Achernar is in the constellation Eridanus, which is a great a river poured by Aquarius.” He moved her hand across the chart, showing how the constellations were drawn atop the stars. “Here, take a look,” he said, standing up and swinging around the telescope. He pointed it at Achernar.<br/><br/>Mike took Rachel’s hand and lifted her to her feet. “C’mon, ja? Take a look. It’s pointed at Achernar, the Southern Star, and you can see the other bright stars of Eridanus forming a river flowing up from Achernar. It looks a bit like a question mark, ja?” His hand stroked absently down her back as she looked at the sky through the telescope.