For You, The Stars
Chapter Ten: Installment 5
From that point on till our affair petered out entirely, “For you, the stars…” became a shorthand we could use at any time to remind each other of our shared secret language of memories and connection. It replaced “are you ready boots?”
Cecilia never did the voice exactly right, but that didn’t matter. She had the gist of it, a Coney Island carny type of tone. It wasn’t a matter of getting the exact patter down. Even I could never quite make it sound right again.
That was the point, really. It was entirely of the moment, an inspiration that we both fully understood, a heartfelt pathetic appeal to a loved one, to a gal you’re trying to impress, a futile reach for poetic excess by someone entirely unfamiliar with the muse.