Though August, it was cold outside in the early morning. I snuggled into Julie's side, and she tucked the old blanket that Mom had let us lay on the grass tighter around me. The beeping of Julie's alarm had woken me up and I hadn't wanted to leave my warm bed, not even to do something special with Julie, who was usually too busy studying for me.Julie was going to be a scientist, and because she lived with us, I knew a lot of things. I knew that babies didn't grow in Mom's tummy--Jack had grown in Mom's uterus. Julie taught me that grown-up word. I knew that Santa didn't make Christmas night long when he traveled around the world--there were time zones because the Earth spun like a top. Julie knew everything.
And I was the only one that Julie had picked to watch this thing--"Perseid," she'd called it, her face all funny like it was something really special--with her; she hadn't asked Jaime and she hadn't asked Jack; she only wanted me.
"Julie," I whined, "I'm cold."
"Shhh," she said. Julie told me to shush a lot. "You want to see this."
I shivered. It was hot in the house, and I'd gone to bed wearing a tank top and shorts. Julie was smart enough to put on a sweatshirt; Julie was smarter than anybody. She took off her sweatshirt and gave it to me, and then wrapped her arms around me like Mom does to me, but used to do more, before baby Jack was born.
All the lights were off in the back yard, and we were far enough away from the street that I couldn't even see the lights from there. It was so dark that I would have been scared even though I'm six and not a baby anymore if Julie hadn't been there. Julie's not scared of anything.
We'd been lying there for a long time and I was starting to get even more sleepy and cold and was almost ready to go inside when a quick flash ran across the sky.
"Wow," I said, jumping up and down in Julie's arms because I was excited. I knew this was Julie's Perseid. "What was that, Julie?" Julie would know, because she knew everything, especially if it was about science, and since she liked this Perseid so much, it had to be science.
Julie squeezed me tight. "Well," she whispered in my ear, "that was magic."
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