"It is so planes don't run into them at night, Liam" he answers his small boy.
That is one reason why the smokestacks have lights at the top of them, yes. There are undoubtedly more reasons but I don't know them.
I can point out Orion because of his belt. And occasionally one of the Dippers, if the night is angled properly and I am at the correct latitude.
"In some cities, maybe fifty or sixty years ago, those were the tallest structures they had, those smokestacks. Before skyscrapers. Stop squirming, Liam. Look, see how tall that one is? Now imagine there were three others stacked on top of that one. That would be how big the one is in the place where Daddy was born."
The boy's breath smokes from his small mouth as he raises a hand into the wintery stars, grabbing at the distant chimney with mittened, woolen hands.
beautiful.
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