Coma Berenices

Anderson showed up at night. At least he was not in black. Anyone who knows Anderson and Renan usually doesn't like to meet them at night. And I can't blame them for that.

"Been having nightmares with that time in Horns Falls, Miss Grisam."

"What you saw there was really you?"

"I was armed", and he was pale just like he was at Horns Falls.

This was what I feared the most. When an Agent is said to be armed, he is in a black armor with something like a duck bill where his head should be. The vision is horrifying enough to chuck you away like a stone from a slingshot.

"I didn't see you in armor, just saw you in your normal aspect", I told him, "by the way if I had seen you in armor, I'd have been projected far from here on the spot, no?"

He agreed with a tiny smile that soon disappeared from his face. I asked him if he wanted to sit under the stars for a while. I brought two chairs from inside and we sat in front of the house, like with master Danilo last night.

"Is this what you do in the fields, you, Andrés and Renan?"

"Yes, that simple. We gaze at the stars."

"What's so cool in that?"

"Funny thing is, Renan asked the same some time ago. But to answer your question, it is up to you whether or not it is cool."

"So it is up to me?"

"Yes, how can you know it is cool if you've never done it. Never stopped to gaze at the night sky?"

"I usually have got other things on my mind."

"Things like…?"

"Things like going to bed early to get up early to work."

"Working is good but doesn't fill a life by itself. You've got to give yourself time to just do nothing at all. And gazing at the sky is not just doing nothing. The beauty of the universe is good for the spirit. It might seem an old hippie's talk, but it is essential for good mental health."

He was gazing at the sky with me. Asked about the constellations. I pointed at the ones I knew. He said that Black Sabbath had a song called "The Sign Of The Southern Cross" and was happy to connect the dots for the first time.

Out of the blue, he asked me what those three stars well to the west were. They formed a kind of incomplete triangle turned sideways. I checked a celestial chart I had with me. It was Coma Berenices. Again the theme of hair, everywhere I went. I wondered why those stars had to take his attention.