Memories from an old dusty box: the golden coin

Bleary-eyed and tired, standing in the garden under the stars. Early morning, must be around 4 AM. Far away, a dog barks. A blanket is wrapped around me, keeping me warm. Father is standing next to me, aiming his telescope at a point in the sky. He turns to me. “Take a look,” he says, with a gentle smile on his face. I’m short, only nine years of age, so I stand on a box to reach the eyepiece. I briefly rub my eyes before taking a look at the ancient visitor. . .

. . . who is described on a Babylonian tablet from 164 BCE; who signaled the beginning of the New Era of the brilliant King of Kings in 87 BCE; who was mentioned in the Chinese Book of Han a few years before Christ’s birth; who appeared just months before the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

I saw through my father’s telescope, on that cold morning in April 1986, a luminous object with a curved, misty tail: Halley’s Comet. A few days later, I bought a golden coloured metal coin to remind me of the encounter. Sitting in an old dusty box for all these years, I recently rediscovered the coin, and it reminds me that a day will come when, in Aristotle’s words, the star with hair will call again. . .

In July 2061, 85 years of age, I hold the golden coin in my frail, wrinkled hands, look up into the night sky at the glowing tear drop with the curved tail, and whisper:

“Welcome back, old friend; it is good to see you again. Welcome back.”