Lila ran ahead along the gravel path, her jacket flapping behind her.
"Wait for us!" Mara called.
"I'm not going far!"
Colton watched her climb the first step toward the entrance.
"She sounds like you."
Mara smiled.
"She sounds like herself."
They followed her inside.
The observatory was quieter than Colton remembered. The walls had been cleaned, and the old astronomical charts had been replaced with new displays. A large telescope stood beneath the dome, its polished metal reflecting the sunlight that entered through the open slit above.
Lila stared at it in wonder.
"Can we see the stars?"
"Not during the day," Colton explained.
"Why not?"
"Because the sun is too bright."
"Then we should turn it off."
Mara laughed.
Colton shook his head.
"I don't think we have that kind of power."
Lila looked disappointed but accepted the explanation.
She wandered toward a display showing the constellations.
Colton stood near the staircase.
He remembered being a child here, holding Samuel's hand and listening to stories about the stars. He remembered Rebecca wrapping a blanket around him. He remembered Mara running ahead, always impatient to discover what waited around the next corner.
The memories were painful.
But they were not all lies.
The people who had loved him had also hurt him.
The people who had hurt him had sometimes shown kindness.
The truth did not erase the past.
It changed the way he understood it.
Mara joined him.
"Are you all right?"
He nodded.
"Yes."
She looked around the chamber.
"I used to think this place held the answer to everything."
"What do you think now?"
"That it was just a building."
Colton smiled.
"That sounds disappointing."
"It is. A little."
She looked at Lila.
"But I think I like knowing that."
Lila returned carrying a small pamphlet.
"Can we come back at night?"
"Of course," Colton said.
"Can we see the star on our arms?"
He looked at her wrist.
The small tattoo was still there.
"Yes," he said. "We can."
She held up her arm beside his.
Their tattoos were almost identical.
For a moment, the symbol no longer felt like a brand.
It felt like something they could reclaim.
Not because the meaning originally given to it had been true, but because they could choose what it meant now.
Lila looked at the stars printed in the pamphlet.
"Which one is our star?"
Colton knelt beside her.
"That's a good question."
He studied the diagram.
"The symbol on our arms isn't one particular star in the sky. It's a design. But we can choose a real star to remind us of home."
Lila considered this.
"Can we choose a bright one?"
"Absolutely."
"Can it be the brightest?"
"That might be difficult. There are a lot of stars."
She thought about it, then nodded.
"Then we'll choose one we can always find."
Colton looked at Mara.
She smiled.
"That sounds like a good plan."
They spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the grounds.
Lila collected smooth stones near the edge of the parking area. Mara took photographs. Colton stood beside the old dome and watched the clouds move across the sky.
For the first time, the observatory did not feel like the place where his family had hidden its secrets.
It felt like a place where those secrets had finally been confronted.
That evening, they returned after sunset.
The volunteers had left, and the grounds were quiet. The sky was clear, the air cool, and the stars appeared one by one above the dark outline of the mountains.
Colton spread a blanket on the ground.
Mara brought hot chocolate in a thermos.
Lila lay between them, looking upward.
"Which star?" she asked.
Colton pointed toward a bright point of light.
"That one."
"How do you know?"
"I don't. I just chose it."
Lila frowned.
"That's not very scientific."
Mara laughed.
"No, it isn't."
Colton smiled.
"But we can learn more about it. We can find out its name, how far away it is, and what constellation it belongs to."
Lila looked satisfied.
"Good."
She rested her head against his arm.
For a while, they watched the sky.
Then she asked, "Do you think Mama Nora can see the stars?"
Colton felt his throat tighten.
"I don't know."
"Do you think she can see us?"
He looked at Mara.
She was watching him, allowing him to answer in his own way.
Colton looked back at his daughter.
"I don't know that either. But I know she loved you. And I know that everything she did was because she wanted you to have a chance to live a good life."
Lila was quiet.
"Do you think she would like it here?"
"Yes," Colton said. "I think she would."
Lila smiled faintly.
"Then we should come back."
"We will."
She closed her eyes.
Within minutes, she had fallen asleep beneath the stars.