Star struck

Arrival

By the time they pulled into the encampment, the shadows cast by the various desert flora had grown long. Although the sun had not quite begun to set, the moon loomed large over the opposite horizon, an unwelcome shadow in the growing twilight.

Celeste jumped down to earth from her car, shaking her limbs as she landed. Her whole body felt like one big cramp. There was a thud on the other side of the car and she spied two small human shows and four golden dog paws, make their way around the car towards her.

"Wow!" Heli's voice preceded her. Celeste looked around, unable to share her sister's enthusiasm. It was certainly larger than she had expected, at least fifty tents stretched across the dusty flat before them, pegs driving cracks through the densely packed orange dirt beneath them.

The tents themselves were all beige, with one large double flapped door and two small windows each. They were all already coated in a fine orange dust, suggesting they had been erected some days before and, besides the flapping of the various tarp trappings, silent.

Celeste looked from row to row, unnerved. Something about the uniformity, coupled with the silence and the deepening twilight felt wrong. Her mum and dad came to join the girls, her dad putting and hand up to his forehead. "Hello there!" He waved to nobody in particular. "Anybody home?"

If Celeste had found the silence creepy it was nothing to the sudden flurry of fifty tents opening simultaneously. A small army of men emerged and stood in front of their tent doors, unsmiling. Celeste eyed them warily. They were all slightly different and yet strikingly similar, in that they were all wholly unremarkable. Plain, neat clothes, brown, slightly unkempt hair, dark eyes, regular features. If someone were to describe them to a sketch artist, Celeste found herself thinking, the culprit would never be found.

"Cassinis!" A deep voice boomed behind them. Celeste started, as Stella yipped in fright beside her. They all turned to the right to find Eamon m, flanked by his sons, laughing a loud belly laugh, obviously pleased at having startled them. Despite the silence, Celeste had not heard them approach at all.

"Welcome!" Eamon stepped forward, grinning. "To my humble abode. Or our humble abode I should say now!" He laughed again, walking over and slapping a hand around her father's back. "Are we ready to feast?"

"Would it be ok if we got settled in a little first?" Celeste's mother s**t a worried look back at the car. Eamon shook his head vigioursly. "I wouldn't dream of it my dear Phoebe. After the journey you've had? It's time to take it easy." He clicked his fingers and two of the closest men from the tents, who had so far watched the entire interaction in silence, walked forward.

"These two lovely gentlemen will be happy to take your belongings to your new tent. Don't worry," he said, catching her mother's worried look and winning reassuringly, they are well trained. Her mother melting a little at the wink, nodded. "Thank you mister...?"

"Oh, don't worry about thanking them." Eamon shook his head again. "Unfortunately they do not speak a word of English. I will convey the sentiment in your behalf."

He issused some quiet, curt commands and the two men accepted the keys to the car from her father and moved to begin unpacking in silence. "Come!" Eamon walked in the opposite direction of the tents, his light shirt flapping sharply in the end.

Celeste grabbed Heli's hand, glancing involuntarily over at Armando again who met her gaze, frowning again. She looked away quickly. "Aren't you going to show us out tent?" Her father asked. Her parents kept pace with Eamon, so that Celeste had to pull Heli a little to keep up.

"Oh yes. our tents are at a separate encompment, a few hundred metres away." Eamon turned toward her father so they faced each other in profile, her father's sharp features weirdly softened by the compassion.

"From experience, we know that sometimes, in builds far from any real civilisation, it can be hard to keep order. Any drama means massive increases in cost and reductions in profit, sometimes to the point where the work is no longer viable."

"For this reason, our workers are forbidden from drinking, smoking, taking drugs or travelling without permission. They stick to a strict sleeping schedule and work routine and, most importantly, they do not fraternise with anyone outside of their work units."

Eamon guestured vaugely back towards the tents. "They know this state of affairs is necessary to realise the profits they travelled so far to occasion. They also know it is not forever. They are content."

Her father nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose it makes sense. You are the expert after all." Eamon laughed heartily again. "You could say that, you could definitely say that. My building accumen has been honed through...extensive experience."

"Look Caelum!" Her mother pointed to the sky above them. The first smattering of stars were beginning to reveal themselves, spalshes artfully across the horizon, ringing the Reds and oranges of the dying sun. "Stunning." Eamon nodded, looking up himself. "Never gets old." For a moment, as Celeste wondered how old he was. It was almost impossible to tell.

"We better get going," Eamon quickened his pace slight. "The nights here get very cold." As the party professed in silence Celeste found it hard to tear her eyes away from the stars. She had never seen them shine so bright before, she had never seen so many. She was beginning to understand what her parents saw in the skies.

"Come on Heli." She pulled at her sister's hand. "We better keep moving." She glanced up once more. "It would be way too easy to get lost out here."