Kimberly Guerrero

You just don't believe it.

Hamburgers would be even better because they got more stuff for energy.

My mother slept in the back seat.

I slept in the front because I was smaller and could lie under the steering wheel.

That night, I heard my mother open the car door.

I found her sitting on a blanket leaning against the bumper of the car.

You see all those stars?

She said.

When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to take me and my sister out on the prairies and tell us stories about all the stars.

Do you think Mal's gonna bring us any hamburgers?

Every one of those stars has a story.

You see that bunch of stars over there that look like fish?

He didn't say no.

Coyote went fishing one day.

That's how it all started.

We set out under the stars that night, and my mother told me all sorts of stories.

She was serious about it, too.

She'd tell them slow, repeating parts as she went, as if she expected me to remember each one.

Early the next morning, the television vans began to arrive and guys in suits and women in dresses came trotting over to us, dragging microphones and cameras and lights behind them.

One of the vans had a table set up with orange juice and sandwiches and fruit.