#~flashback

He pinpointed her exact location in an instant, just like he did every night. Raymond Luciole, at 18 years old, knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted Evangeline.

He pulled his eye away from the telescope lens and glanced at her with no help from an external source, albeit not as closely or clearly as with the lens between them. She was everything he’d ever wanted, a great listener, beautiful, perfect in every way. He sat out on his old tin roof every night, just for a glimpse of her.

Every night, that is, until Pa found out what he’d been doing up there all those times.

“RAYMOND LAUTREC LUCIOLE, YA GITCHO ASS DOWN HEA DIS MINUTE!”

Rolling his eyes, Ray gave Evangeline a forlorn look, conveying to her that he would return very soon, and then he started toward the ladder. “THAT MEAN NOW, BOY!”

“You keep yo pants on, Pa!” Ray shouted back, his eyebrows furrowing now as he climbed down, rung by rung. Now he was a bit worried. Sure his dad could scream the scales off a gator, just as well as Mama could, but… He’d never heard him sound this angry.

Ray dropped onto the spongy ground and tentatively started toward the screened in back door. He pulled it open, squeaky on its rusty hinges, and stepped inside. His Pa looked furious. And he was holding his spare telescope lenses. Ray looked at the box, then looked up into the eyes of his father, seeing the anger inside them. But there was also pain, sadness perhaps.

What had Ray done wrong? He’d had those lenses for years, ever since he’d discovered his passion for stargazing, and some of them the family had even bought him. Unless he’d somehow found out what else he did with his telescope… Which, from the realization that his journal was laying on the old dark wood table, Ray knew he had.

“Evangeline, huh?” Pa said, staring hard at Ray.

“Yessir,” Ray said, his voice strong and unwavering. He wouldn’t back down.

“Son, naw, when we getchu dis kit o’ star thangs, we ain’t mean for you ta-“

“I love her, Pa.”

Mama sat at the table, her eyes tearing up, but a weak smile passed her lips as she gazed at Ray. She was proud of him, her boy standing up for himself like that. But Ray also knew that this was far from over.

“Love her? Love her?” he repeated, as if it were a sick joke. “Boy, you don’ know what love even is, naw!”

Ray swallowed the lump that was threatening to form in his throat. “I do so, Pa,” he snapped back, his eyes narrowing. “I love her ain’t there ain’t nothin’-“

“Oh, there ain’t nothin’, huh?” Pa spat, and then he opened the box of telescope parts. Ray couldn’t move, what was he planning to do?

And then he watched as his father dumped the contents of the box onto the kitchen floor. “Hey!” Ray said angrily, taking a step forward.

“Donchu even, boy!” his father yelled back, holding out a hand. Ray stopped, afraid to take another move against his father. Ray froze and stared on as he was forced then to watch his father stomp on every last fragile piece, breaking them beneath the sole of his work boot.

His eyes were tearing up, not with sadness, but with anger. “How could you do that!” he screamed at Pa, clenching his fists at his sides to try to reign in his emotions. After all, he had to look at the bright side right now… His telescope and best lens were up on the roof at this second, safe from harm. This was not even close to the worst thing that could happen.

“How could I?” Pa repeated, incredulously. “Son, how could you? You realize she ain’t even real?”

That stopped Ray instantly. His jaw dropped, his shoulders slumped. “You take dat back,” he said, his voice low and grumbly. “Take it back!”

“Boy, she a star. A star in da sky! Bes’ break yo’heart naw befo’ ya get laughed at lata!” His father’s face fell into a more sympathetic expression. “Bes’ realize dere ain’t no Evangeline.”

Ray shook his head. No. No, it wasn’t true. She was real, he looked up at her in the sky every night. Sure, he knew she was a star… But he loved her all the same.

Pa sighed, and Ray could tell this entire thing made him weary. Well, I ain’t to upset fo’ you righ’ now, Pa, he thought, his entire being feeling the bitterness of his heart. “Your Ma and I decided,” Pa started, and Ray’s eyes flicked over to where his Ma sat. He knew that the decision had all been his father’s, of course, but he always pretended it had been a joint effort when it was punishment he was talking about. “…that you gon’ go away ta school nex’ year. We know ya applied ta plenty o’ colleges, naw, but we gon’ pick da one ya go. A’right?”

Ray said nothing, his jaw set and staring at the shattered metal and glass on the floor. Wherever his Pa sent him, it wouldn’t change anything. He would still study the stars, become an astrophysicist, no matter what it took.

And he would find a way to finally be with his Evangeline.

“A’right?” Pa repeated, a bit aggravated.