“I almost let the observation date slip by, but I never truly forgot it, just stowed it in the deepest recesses of my memory. A few nights ago, I suddenly thought of it….”

“Me too.”

Neither of them spoke. They just listened to the gusts of wind that blew through the trees reverberate among the mountains.

“Did Sirius actually twinkle like that?” he asked finally, his voice trembling a little.

“The waveform of its twinkling overlaps precisely the sun’s from seventeen years ago and Alpha Centauri A’s from seven years ago. It also arrived exactly on time. The space telescope Confucius 3 observed it. There’s no way it can be wrong.”

They fell again into another long stretch of silence. The rumble of wind through the trees rose and fell. The sound spiraled among the mountains, filling the space between earth and sky. It seemed as though some sort of force throughout the universe thrummed like a deep and mystical chorus…. He couldn’t help but shiver. She, evidently feeling the same way, broke the silence, as though to cast off her fears.

“But this situation, this strange phenomenon, goes beyond our current theories. It requires many more observations and much more evidence in order for the scientific community to deal with it.”

“I know. The next possible observable star is …”

“It would have been Procyon, in Canis Minor, but five years ago, it rapidly grew too dark to be worth measuring. Maybe it drifted into a nearby cloud of interstellar dust. So, the next measurable star is Altair, in the constellation Aquila.”

“How far is it?”

“5.1 parsecs, 16.6 light-years. The sun’s twinkling from seventeen years ago has just reached it.”

“So we have to wait another seventeen years?”

“People’s lives are bitter and short.”

Her last sentence touched something deep in his heart. His eyes, blown dry by the winter wind, suddenly teared. “Indeed. People’s lives are bitter and short.”

“But at least we’ll still be around to keep this sort of appointment again.”

He stared at her dumbly. Did she really want to part ways again for seventeen years?!

“Excuse me. This is all a bit overwhelming,” he said. “I need some time to think.”

The wind had blown her hair onto her forehead. She brushed it away. She saw into his heart, then laughed sympathetically. “Of course. I’ll give you my number and email address. If you’re willing, we’ll keep in touch.”

He let out a long breath, as if a riverboat on the misty ocean finally saw the lighthouse on the shore. His heart filled with a happiness he was too embarrassed to admit to.

“But … Why don’t I escort you down the mountain.”

Laughing, she shook her head and pointed to the domed vacation villa behind her. “I’m going to stay here awhile. Don’t worry. There’s electricity and good company. They live here, forest rangers … I really need some peace and quiet, a long time of peace and quiet.”