Stars

Last night Alleke and I hiked down to the beach to the look at the stars. We lay there in the sand side by side looking up at the sky, spread out in front of us like a map of a million cities.

Eventually I turned over and asked Alleke,"Can you count the stars?"

She nodded confidently, and then carefully began counting each star with her pointer finger. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven," she said, and then looked at me.

"Seven," I said, nodding in agreement.

Today we were eating lunch in the backyard with our friends Carey and Marty, and I was telling them the story about Alleke counting the stars. When I finished, April said, "Oh, that's because I take Alleke up on the roof of our apartment building in Madrid to hang up laundry, and when we count stars, we can only see seven."