Aurora

Holtz’s boots crunched in the snow. She let Erin lead their venture with a head-lamp and a ‘bear stick’ she had requested Holtz build a week and a half before the trip.

Fumbling to keep her grip on Erin’s hand through thick wool mittens, Holtz watched their breath dance and mingle through the crisp air and fall along their tracks.

“Erin. Can you please tell me why we’re in Basically Canada, Maine at 9:30 at night in the dead of winter?”

“The B&B prices off-season are a freakin’ steal!” Erin chirped gleefully through the night. Holtz couldn’t help but smile at Erin’s enthusiasm.

The whole thing was Erin’s idea. It started with Erin practically running into the lab one fall afternoon, and clasping onto Holtz arm. Holtz had felt a smile appear, as it so often did whenever her girlfriend was around, and waited for her to announce the thing that was so clearly on her mind.

“Let’s go for a trip! Please say yes!” Erin’s grip tightened on Holtz’s upper arm. She was biting her lip with excitement. Holtz so rarely saw this side of her, how could she say no?

“Of course. When?”

“How about… January?”

“Sure! You want to go south to escape the cold?”

“Uh… not exactly.”

So Holtz found herself wandering through a wildlife refuge in a county she couldn’t pronounce in northern Maine in January.

“Umm, okay yes. This is good.” Erin slid her backpack off, laid out a blanket, retrieved heated gel packs, and even unpacked a thermos.

She plopped down and patted her hand on the blanket to invite Holtz to join her, smile radiant in the dark night.

Holtz obliged. Arms spread open, she threw herself to the mercy of the blanket and snow trust-fall style and landed beside Erin. The sound of their laughter echoed through the clearing in the wilderness, and Holtz concluded absently that if they both froze to death there in the woods, it wouldn’t be the worst way to go.

Erin lay down beside her and curled into Holtzmann’s side. The only sound to be heard was the gentle rustle of bare-branched trees, and an eerie bird call ringing through from a great distance.

“Will you tell me now?” Holtz asked, trying her best to wrap her bulky, bundled arms around Erin.

To reply, Erin rummaged around until she found Holtz’s arm, and pulled her wrist into view. Shoving the cuff of Holtz’s jacket up, she collected the (GPS) watch from her forearm and switched the backlight on, presumably to check the time.

“Just another few minutes…”

Holtz looked at her for a moment, but Erin’s eyes were alternating between the watch and the sky. Holtz was about to say something when she saw Erin’s eyes widen and her jaw drop. Her vision fixed upward, Erin switched her headlamp off, and sat up.

“What’re you-” but the words died on her lips. As Holtz too sat up, she followed Erin’s gaze and suddenly forgot anything and everything she might have been thinking seconds before. Hanging above them on that cloudless winter night was the ethereal shimmer of The Northern Lights.

Flickering green, blue, and violet, Holtz could do nothing but watch the lights sway gently in the dark. She marvelled at how the pictures she had seen did not even come close to representing the beauty before her (and the lights weren’t so bad either).

The two sat speechless on their blanket; cold and snow and sound forgotten, in awe of the sight.

“I’ve been tracking the solar winds," Erin said, her voice soft, almost hesitant. "I wanted to make sure it was the best possible night for this. I’m sorry it’s so cold, though.”

“Erin this is… wow. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Holtz,” she placed her hands over her girlfriend’s, “I remember when I first saw you, you drew me in. Everything about you was fascinating to me. You were this surreal entity, and I felt a little like I do tonight; I just… I couldn’t look away. The more I got to know you, the harder it was for me to imagine my life without you in it. So much about you has changed me. You’ve inspired me to be a better scientist, a better friend, and you’ve shown me how to appreciate the people in my life that have stood by me through everything; you most of all. I wanted to do this for you tonight because… I’m really really in love with you.”

Holtz was so thrown by Erin’s words, she almost couldn’t respond. Almost.

“That’s it?”

“What?”

“Gilbert! I thought you were going to propose or something, but all this just to say ‘I love you’?”

The way Erin’s face flushed, and body squirmed made it all worthwhile. “Holtz! This is the first time I said ‘I love you’!”

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it it!”

“No! Remember that time with the oreo dream…?”

“I told you that didn’t count!”

Holtz face split into a grin. She couldn’t drag it out much longer. It wasn’t worth it anyway, considering how much she needed to kiss her girlfriend in that moment. So she did.

Despite awkward fumbling with mittened hands, the kiss added some much needed heat to the brisk winter night.

“I love you too, Erin.”

“Good. It was really hard to organize this without you finding out.”

“Oh, I totally knew.”

“What? Who told you? Abby? Patty? Kevin? Darn it, I knew I shouldn’t have told Kevin why I needed the stupid rental car.”

“Babe, no one told me. But wow… You trusted Kevin with a secret? That was a bold move. Not sure I would’ve risked it, but really well done, Kev.”

Holtz laughed at herself for a minute, and Erin looked grumpy. “Honestly Erin, Maine? In January? I know you didn’t just come for the skiing. You weren’t exactly being subtle here.”

“Well I wasn’t going for subtle. I was going for romantic. ”

Holtz laughed at how cranky this was making Erin. She didn’t want her to be too cranky though. It was really fucking romantic. It was important to her that Erin knew what it meant to her.

“This night has been amazing, Erin. Thank you. Seeing these lights is now my second favourite thing in the world.” Holtz kissed her again.

When they broke apart, Erin let out a satisfied little sigh. “My pleasure.”

There were a few moments where the two held each other in the dark and watched the lights flicker and shine until they began to fade overhead.

It was beautiful and quiet and so meaningful, but Holtz’s ass was starting to freeze to the ground.

“You wanna get out of here?”

“Oh god, yes.”

They scrambled to collect their things before their fingers became too numb, and raced back to the car which was parked a merciful 250m away from the clearing.

Some time later, once sufficiently warmed by the woodburning stove (and fourteen layers of quilts) at the bed and breakfast they were lodged at, Holtz curled into Erin’s arms and mumbled lazily, “I have to ask, Erin. What’s with you and these lights, anyway?”

Erin laughed a sleepy laugh. “You have a shirt that reminds me of it.”

Holtz looked up at Erin and saw she was moments away from sleep.

She continued anyway. “You were wearing it when I first realized I was in love with you.”

Hell yeah, I remember aurora

All this time…