STARS AND FOXES

I fake slept when Hubby saw me on the couch after midnight. Hadn’t meant to return that late, especially on the sly. It’s just, the lake was so calm, and the moon so big and bright. I was alone out there and/yet not alone. Lying still on my blanket and waiting for Perseid’s meteors to shoot across the sky, a small nervous fox approached, zigzagging toward me in slow rhythmic steps, halt and go, chin to ground. At blanket’s edge, he risked nearing his head inches from my watchful eyes. He sniffed. I sniffed. He trotted away. Shooting stars fell.