Brad received the bad news rather well, all thinks considered. The prognosis wasn’t good. Hopeless, actually. His cancer had metastasized and there was nothing they could do anymore. he was given only three or four months. So Brad decided he would start working through the items he’d put on his bucket list eighteen months ago when he was first diagnosed.
Brad had always been a city boy and recently he had started getting interested in the stars and planets in the night sky. But living in the city, light pollution made it all but impossible to see the majesty of a night sky. So the first item on his bucket list was to find someplace way out of the range of light pollution so he could see a magnificent starry night.
He immediately thought about Montana, known as “big sky country,” and going to Montana and being able to see our galaxy, the Milky Way, was number one on his list. A week later, with his pup tent, sleeping bag, a lantern, and not much else, Brad was in the middle of nowhere in Montana.
The night was cold and crisp and beautifully clear. As the sun was setting, Brad looked up and saw what must have been billions of stars, and as it got darker and darker, the giant swath of milky haze in the sky became visible. It was an awesome sight to behold.
Brad spent a few hours looking up at the Milky Way, until he made his way back to his tent. He had to get some sleep and prepare for the second item on this bucket list. He’d be heading to the tundra in Alaska so he could experience seeing the shimmering aurora borealis, or the Northern Lights.
Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt. Photo credit: EvgeniT @ Pixabay.
This, That, and the Other 