Katasterismoi
ART: 16, female, jeans, messy black hair, Legend of Zelda sweatshirt, three silver bracelets, one friendship bracelet, torn sneakers
MARSHALL: 43, male, cowboy boots with spurs, sweatpants, red homemade knit sweater
Lights up. In the back of MARSHALL’s beaten up pick up truck. What once used to be a red Ford, now looks almost dusty silver by the amount of mud streaks and scratches. Two sleeping bags are in the back of the trunk—one is longer and green, a sketch book lies next to it. The other is light blue and an old camera rests on top at the foot of the bag with a roll of film next to it. ART and MARSHALL are lying down on their respective sleeping bags staring at the star filled sky and determining different constellations.
MARSHALL
And if we timed this right, a shooting star should pass by any moment now. You know shooting stars are meteors right?
ART
Uh huh.
MARSHALL
I’ve raised you right then. Do you want to keep learning about stars?
ART
Uh huh. I mean that’s why we came out here right? To the middle of nowhere. And why I’m not at home, playing video games and doing all my homework.
MARSHALL
You have tomorrow to do your homework, Art! C’mon, I don’t get to spend as much time with you anymore now that you’ve moved in with your mom. This should be fun. You’re learning more about how you got your name!
ART
Umm.
MARSHALL
Are you telling me your Mom never told you about how you got your name?
ART
Uh, nope.
MARSHALL
Well then, let me tell you. Way back when, a long long time ago, there was a goddess
named Artemis. You probably already know that she was the goddess of hunt and the moon, but she is also the one who placed many of the constellations in the sky. Or katasterismoi as the ancient Greeks called it. The placing of the stars. Before you were born your mother and I, who had met while in the same astronomy class, called you our little star and when you were born we decided to name you Artemis because we knew that that whatever it is you decided to do and grew up to be, you would be a light in this world.
(Heavy silence for fifteen seconds.)
ART
(Softly and with a new view on her relationship with her dad.)
Wow. Thanks, Dad. I never knew that.
(A shooting star passes by and ART and MARSHALL smile at each other.)