Perseids Puns

Sony A7 RIII, Sony 16-35 f/2.8 G lens, 15 sec, f /2.8, ISO 8000. Edited in Lightroom.

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Up.

Eric and I were lying on blankets on the sandy shore of a river deep in the forest looking up at the night sky above us. We had gone camping up north to get away from the bright city lights so that we could watch the Perseids meteor shower. The chirping of the crickets echoed through the forest and an owl in a nearby tree hooted occasionally. It was so peaceful out there that night. Little did we know our quiet camping trip was about to take a horrifying turn.

I had just turned twenty at the beginning of July and Eric is a year-and-a-half older than me. We have been friends for our whole lives. In fact, our parents were friends before we were even born. That’s how far back we go.

Eric turned his head and looked at me. “I hope we get to see something soon. It’d be so disappointing to have come all the way up here for...”

A shooting star streaked across the sky. It was so fast! It seemed to disappear before my brain had even finished processing what I was seeing.

“There’s one!” I exclaimed, cutting him off. “Did you see it?”

“No, I turned to talk to you,” said Eric, frustration evident in his voice.

“I told you, you have to keep your eyes on the sky. They’re quick!”

Eric and I continued searching the sky with our eyes. A short distance into the forest to our right was our tent and camping equipment. To our left was the river, which shimmered beautifully in the light of the half moon.

“There’s another one!” I exclaimed as a shooting star whizzed across the sky. “Did you see it this time?”

“Yes, I saw that one!”

Eric and I probably spent over an hour just lying there watching the sky. Shooting stars passed over us quite often, so the weekend trip up north had definitely been worth it in that respect. We’d never have been able to see any shooting stars that night if we’d tried lying in my backyard to watch the meteor shower.

As we were still watching for shooting stars, a white light slowly moving above the tree tops across the river caught my eye. “Hey Eric,” I said, tapping him on the shoulder, “what do you think that is?”

Eric turned his head and followed my gaze. “Huh. That’s interesting. Could it be a plane?”

“It’s going too slow to be a plane. It can’t be a helicopter, either. We’d be able to hear it by now if it was.”

Eric and I sat up and watched as the light crossed the river further down stream in front of us. We couldn’t see anything more of the object than just the light. After it had crossed the river,