Lauren nodded. “Grab us some sweatshirts, my dear,” Lolly said to Arden. “It’ll be chilly on the beach, especially if we have to wait awhile.”
Arden considered protesting what she felt was likely a wild-goose chase, but her mother’s face said there would be no discussion. Instead, Arden nodded, too, and grabbed some sweatshirts.
Thirty-five
Lolly, Arden, and Lauren were stretched out on a giant quilt, lying side by side, staring up at the starry sky, the sound of the waves from Lake Michigan lulling them into a trance.
There was an out-of-body experience to being on the beach at night. A few other hearty stargazers were camped out on the sand, but no one had lit a fire or had flashlights shining. Everyone was waiting for the show, almost reverential in anticipation of what might occur.
“It’s so dark and quiet out here,” Lauren said. “In Chicago, there’s always light—streetlights, headlights, apartment lights—and noise from people, airplanes, sirens, the highway, the city.”
“That’s why it’s so perfect to see the Northern Lights here,” Lolly said. “There is no pollution in the sky to hide the show. And you can see from heaven to earth, and east to west, forever.”
Seeing the Northern Lights in Michigan was akin to seeing Bigfoot, Arden thought. Everyone in Michigan said they had seen them at some point in their lives, but few could ever offer up specifics, or even a great photo.
Arden had studied the Northern Lights in science class. If she remembered her studies well enough, the Northern Lights—or aurora borealis—were a natural light phenomenon in the sky, mostly seen in high latitudes. They were named after the Roman goddess of dawn (Aurora) and the Greek god of the north wind (Boreas) by Galileo. The Northern Lights are the result of collisions of gaseous particles in the earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun. The effect was akin to a 3-D kaleidoscopic light display in the sky. The light displayed in many colors and forms, including shades of green, pink, red, yellow, blue, and violet—in arcs, streamers, rippling curtains, and shooting rays that lit up the sky in an eerie, otherworldly glow.
The three stared into the sky. “Isn’t this exciting?” Lolly asked, her voice high.
“Are you sure this is going to happen, Mom?” Arden asked after a few minutes of silence.
“Oh, it’ll happen,” Lolly said, grabbing Arden’s and Lauren’s hands in the dark. “When you least expect it. It’s like love. You just have to be patient and then—BOOM!—you see lights.”
Lauren laughed. “Did you see lights when you first met Grampa, when he hooked you with his fishing lure?”
“I think I saw my life flash before my eyes first,” Lolly laughed. “But, yes … I know this sounds a little silly, but I immediately saw light radiating from him when we met. I just knew.”
Lolly smiled to herself and continued. “You know that photo I have in my bedroom? The one taken at sunset on the beach? It was taken right here. Your grandfather brought me here on a date. He roasted hot dogs and we made s’mores, and then he told me the date wasn’t over. He said he’d asked my dad if he could show me the Northern Lights. But my dad didn’t like me staying out so late with a boy, so Les invited my dad to join us. And the lights were spectacular.”
Lolly stopped and closed her eyes. She was silent for a moment. “And in the middle of the Northern Lights—right in the middle of all that color and those shooting stars—he gave me a charm.”
Lolly sat up. “Your phone has one of those flashlights on it, doesn’t it? Jake’s taught me all about those—what are they called?—apples?”
“Apps, Grandma.” Lauren laughed, turning on her phone. “Here you go.”
Lolly held her charm bracelet in front of the light and shook it. She held out a charm and sighed. “It’s appropriate the light is shining off it so brightly,” Lolly said. “This is my shooting star charm. When Les gave it to me in the middle of the Northern Lights, he whispered, so my dad wouldn’t hear, ‘To a life in which you are lucky in love.’”
“And I whispered back, ‘You will always be my lucky star.’”
Lauren sat up. “Don’t make me cry again, Grandma.”
The three listened to the waves crash onto the beach, and owls hoot from the aspen and pine trees in the dunes behind them. “Did you see light when you met Dad?” Lauren asked her mother.
Arden considered lying to her daughter, but she sat up and said to the lake, “No, I didn’t, sweetie. I saw … stability. I saw … a life of ease. I saw … well … no fireworks, nothing that had anything to do with love, sadly.”
Arden stopped and put her arm around her daughter’s shoulder. “But the greatest love of my life resulted from our marriage. So I can never be sorry about that decision. And you certainly light up my life.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Lauren said, hesitating before forging on with a question. “Did you see lights with Clem?”