Infinite Mid-Night
She stirs restlessly on her bed, her fitful sleep interrupted by a feverish desire for cold.
It's a hot summer night. She moves to the other side of the bed, looking for sweet
coldness and relief, but this side is as hot as the other. She flips the pillow, kicks the
single sheet, and sips at water. She bathes her hair with cool flecks from her cup.
Then it just goes sticky and warm.
It's a hot summer night. There is no breeze, but somehow, the sickly sweet fragrance
of magnolias rides an invisible current through the open window. She sneezes, and
sighs. Somewhere in the distance, a dog howls at the moon. Cats are fighting on the
neighbour's porch. She hears a zing every time a mosquito hits the insect killer light,
and is fried into oblivion. She is frying too.
It's a hot summer night, about midnight in the morning. She is impatient for sleep, wanting
the absolution from the scorching heat. She doesn't want to look at the thermometer.
It would just make her feel sick.
Feet sink into the beige carpet, and protest mildly at the new weight. She moves to the window
and impatiently brushes a curtain aside. The cats look up at the new intruder in their
night, and leave. The dog has stopped howling. All is quiet.
Padding like a panther, she slowly moves out the doorway and downstairs. Through
the hall, out the door, onto the verandah.
She sits on the verandah, knees drawn in, arms circling her knees, slowly rocking
backwards and forwards. She looks at the night sky, and murmurs the names of the
constellations she sees and knows.
...orion...
...crux...
...canis major...
And considers infinity, as she names the galaxies. She counts constellations, names
stars. Considers the gas atoms in each star. And knows this is infinity, same as an
expanding universe. One is infinity. The universe is one. The universe is expanding
constantly, as is infinity. As the universe expands, so does time. Time expands at the
same rate as infinity. Infinity, is to be one.
She smiles gently at the stars, the stars look down and smile back. It's still a hot
summer's night. Still smiling, still rocking, she stays curled up on the porch looking at
the stars and beyond until the night relents and a cool release envelops her. | 
