Pepper Partridge

Below Pepper and Cody, the road stretches out ahead, the wheels of the truck kicking up dust as they drive, passing the sign of Anchor Rock and travelling onward. A dirt road that gives way to tarmac, to highway, to cityscape over the coming days.

Above Pepper and Cody, the sky shifts and shines. For a time, the truck is dappled by sun filtered through forest, gaps in the leaves casting the truck in speckled light, islands of glittering amidst a blanket of shadow. Soon, as they make it onto larger roads, the sky above is stark, a wash of sun that beats down onto the truck, windows rolled against the blue of a sun-stained sky. As the sun begins to set, casting the couple in golds and pinks, sinking quickly into the dark of night, they park, roll out a blanket in the trunk, and lie together, and look up.

The sky looks the best at night. The stars mark out a route for the two. Constellations are rife with stories, entire mythologies captured in a few sparse specks of light. In many ways, their story is recorded in the observable galaxy above: it is these stories, this story, that Pepper and Cody chase now.

They journey on, the truck filling with the discarded wrappers of hastily bought burgers from dodgy roadside fast-food joints, with any number of tacky, colourful souvenirs, with the constant blare of rock, with conversation and giggling, with plans and anticipation.

With so many places to visit, it takes quite some time to arrive at NNYC, but together they take on the city. Skyscrapers, museums, the Gargoyle of Freedom, the Chronology Rhombus. So much to see! And, of course, they visit Pepper’s brother at the uni. In the city they cannot see the stars the same, blurred out by the haze of smog, here the specks of lights glow from windows. No constellations to trace, but full of stories nevertheless, lives caught in orange glow. For now, they may travel on, journey to Hillville, drop in at Papa’s Pizzeria, but they’ll be back. To study stories, to create their own in LED and starlight.

Behind Pepper and Cody, the road stretches out, a path back to Anchor Rock, to the soil where they first held hands, together looking at the stars that they had always watched, apart, in the same sky.