Subject:  digestive #2 [extract]
Date:  ? (sometime in late 1995)

Cool desert night.  We sat on rocks, on folded-over sleeping pads,
and scanned the sky.

"There's the summer triangle," said Rick.  "There's Aquila.  Oh!
A shooting star, just left of Pegasus!"

I didn't look in time, but Charlie oohed too.  Danni was petulant:
"The only constellation I know is the Big Dipper."

"Ursa Major," said Rick.  "The ancients must never have seen a bear
to think they have tails like that.  Ok, Pegasus is over here.  See the 
big square?" He sketched it in the sky.  "This is his body, the stars 
here are his tail, here's his head."

"Another one!" cried Charlie.  We followed his gaze, too late.

"My favorite's Aquila, the eagle," I said.  "See his talons?  Two lines of 
three stars, trying to grab that diamond-shaped constellation.  That's 
Delphinius, the fish.  Aquila's been trying to catch it for billions of 
years."

"One hungry eagle," said Danni.

"One lucky fish," said Charlie.  And as we all looked at Aquila, hopelessly
chasing his dinner, the brightest shooting star we'd ever seen flashed 
across the desert sky.