Did Jocef know the content of his father’s letter? And what is Mose trying to do, if not destroy her father?
T here is but one window in their home from which the night sky is visible. Papa’s study. Aster slowly steals inside past the bookshelves laden with tomes in Latin Arabic Hebrew Catalan. Past the desk littered with quills and inks of cobalt and black. Past the half-drawn map that is Papa’s latest commission. She opens the wooden shutters. The light-blue slats glow softly in the moonlight.
Aster places both arms on the windowsill and leans forward tipping her head up to the sky. She traces the shapes of the stars shapes the Arabic names Papa taught her with her lips: Humām al-Qaiḍ ar-Rishā’
Usually her nightly trail through the constellations makes her feel safe reminds her that the world indeed conforms to an order. Tonight though her eyes blur and the sky is awash with spilled ink and random pricks of light. She grasps the windowsill with both hands tries to think of the reason for her sleepless night. Papa? Clara? Perhaps it is the change of the seasons the turning of the year. Aster stretches her arms.
The note sails through the window just as she turns to leave.
