The Magical Path in the Sky

CW: includes coarse language.

Jay reached his arm out the car window, singing at the top of his lungs to AC/DC. Singing to blasting rock music whilst Dave slammed his foot on the accelerator filled Jay with a shivery euphoria no drug could match. The noise, the speed peeled away his worries. The stars faded in on the ink-spilled night — white shavings on a black page. His three buddies cackled between bites of potato chips and Coffee Crisps they purchased from a 7-Eleven petrol station.

“I found this town Whitehorse on Google Maps. It’s bursting with cash — gonna be a real catch,” Dave said.

They were driving through Yukon, Canada. Ivan kicked his legs up on the dash. “Where the hell we gonna nest for the night, eh? We gon’ lose more dough on some shitty motel again? I almost got bed bugs in my armpit hairs.”

“TMI Ivan,” Jay wrinkled his nose.

“I thought I told ya, blockhead,” Dave’s hands tightened on the wheel — Jay could see his porcelain knucklebones. Ghostly flashes from streetlights created a tunnel-like effect. “I found us a hood flanking this snobby town.”


“If we’re out camping again like we did in Ohio—” Henry began through a yawn — he slumped next to Jay, his eyes shielded by shadow.


“Shut the hell up with ya accusations! Did ya not hear me the first time ya meat-lumps? If ya’ll don’t trust me that much, why don’t ‘cha rob me for a change? Yah mongrels!”

The eternal night reigned as the stolen Chevrolet traveled through picturesque streets — a peaceful town breathed in the cusp of winter; with Christmas tree sale signs and a bakery’s warm glow hugging the mountainside. They drove a few miles away from the rural town, into a darkness as wide as Henry’s yawns. Finally, the car’s tyres met off-road ground. Vibrations rumbled in Jay’s jaw, reminding him of the noise and pain from dentist drills.

“What in the—” Henry startled awake, pressing grimy nails into Dave’s headrest. “Are you planning to hurl us off a cliff?”

“I will if ya don’t shut the hell up!” Dave growled. “Who do ya think’s been driving the past six hours? Yah lazy asses!”

Dave skidded the Chevrolet to a halt. The music stopped. Jay was suddenly aware of the quiet, of the stillness — of his own thoughts — once more. Dave’s foot squelched sickeningly in mud. Jay, alongside his partners in crime Ivan and Henry, stepped into the cool night. An old wooden fence rimmed an abandoned barn. The stench of manure and dried hay strangled overgrown grasses. The moon casted jagged, chiaroscuro shadows across the barn’s roof — illuminating a hole where the rotted planks had caved in.

Ivan tipped his chin up to the looming mountains — all black curves edged by silvery, snail trail light — hands on his hips. “So, was The Night of the Hunter what you had in mind, Boss?”

Dave flashed Ivan a glare. Sleep-deprived and skinny, Dave blended in with the landscape — a zombie swaying longs arms in an apocalyptic scene.

“I have a better question,” Henry said. “You call a huge fucking barn a hood?”

“Enough. C’mon Jay.”

Dave’s voice brought Jay into the present. He didn’t register how long he’d stood there for — he fell out of time the moment it decided to stand still.

Jay hauled in their duffle bags filled with essentials. He slept that night breathing in his own stale, recycled breaths from under his sleeping bag — rather than force himself to relive memories of leather and livestock, of smiles pooling in his gut before they tugged his lips and soared out his dizzy head. She lay with him in a barn like this one. Her kisses, her dimple, her strong but slender wrists and his gratitude for life shattered into thousands of irreparable pieces; taunting him each night like the stars in the sky.

“I’ve checked it out. These people don’t even lock their doors — they’re so damn friendly with each other!”

Jay roused to the sound of Ivan’s voice — the barn door pushed open. Henry tossed a plastic bag on the ground, food spilling out. “Got us brekky.”

Sunlight fell in a celestial circle through the hole in the barn’s roof. Jay, Henry, Ivan and Dave gathered round on top of hay bales — munching white bread and dry cereal.

“The four of us will scram to each corner of this stuck-up town,” Dave said. “We’ll meetup at nightfall. All their precious jewellery lookin’ pretty on their shelves gon’ line our pockets.”

Dave grinned with a mouthful of yellow cornflakes, fist-bumping Ivan. Henry beamed back, biting fruit loops off his fingers. Jay breathed in earthy, country air, his arms cushioned by fresh grass woven through sheets of hay.

“What do ya say Jay?” Dave stretched a piece of gum clenched in his teeth. Snap.

Three pairs of eyes locked on his. They saw only the creased lines on Jay’s forehead and his bronzed hands — a few years ago his palms were white, ink-stained and warmed by the puzzle piece of her hand intertwined with his. He checked his watch and forcibly exhaled. It was 2pm.

“What are we waiting for?” he said. He clenched his fists and pulled up a clump of grass. “Let’s do it.”

Jay strode down the northern end of town. The old, medieval-style houses were painted in primary colours, lending them a beach house quality. It was the kind of run-down style that stays in fashion. Jay wore a soccer jersey and a pair of scuffed jeans and sneakers. He hoped he’d fit in with the local’s denim and checkered get-up. He nodded at a man with a flabby, affable face watering his garden. Jay tightened his grip on his backpack straps. This was how they did it — in the inconspicuous flush of day. Dave had been doing this for years and trained Jay up. It all began in a bar in New York — with acidic whiskey eroding the sorrow and self-loathing settled in his gut.

“Ya deserve to live an easier life, man. The people around ya treated ya like shit. I can relate to that,” Dave had said to him, clamping a hand on his shoulders. It was the only time Jay saw a glimpse of emotion on Dave’s face — like an ocean wave frothing before it sunk back into deep, endless blue.

Jay scanned the windows from the corner of his eyes, waiting for a heart pounding anticipation as soon as he sensed an empty house. Sure enough, a pink roofed house waited patiently for him with dozy windows. He wandered through the back gate and across the lawn dotted with plastic flamingoes. He whipped out gloves from his backpack and his balaclava — put them on. The unlocked back door whined open. He snuck to the main bedroom; with a queen-sized bed and an oakwood shelf. He found a jewellery box filled with shiny loot. It took him seconds to pick apart fake jewels and gold from the real stuff. Rings, bracelets and necklaces jangled against one another in his pockets — a taunting sound reminding him of his complicity. For all he knew, he could be stealing jewellery from a woman’s deceased grandmother. But he’d long learnt how to muffle the noise, to focus on his own bitterness towards others, driving him forwards. The malice forever nestled in his heart always nullified his guilt.

He slipped into a flow-state where he felt invincible, powerful as unknowing eyes glanced at him as he crossed the main street. They saw a neat and casual man — the person he used to be. The man he still believed he was.

After a couple hours of successful robberies, Jay waltzed down a lonely street from the northernmost corner. He eyed a little cottage. Two mountain peaks in the distance looked like antlers growing out of the cottage’s roof. The view from the street was stunning — sunset colours trickled down the mountain, suffusing the cottage in a citrus gold. Jay approached the back door. It creaked open at his touch. Cozy rugs swallowed his footsteps. Vibrant, mismatched magnets on the fridge stirred something inside his chest — something sleeping inside him that wasn’t meant to be there anymore. In the master bedroom floral curtains welcomed in sunset colours. Hanging plants swayed. A Van Gogh picture was hung on the wall. Jay’s girlfriend used to gush over her love for Van Gogh — she had been a fine arts major, dreaming of teaching kids to imagine and play through craft. Jay shook off the thought. He’d been pushing the memory of her out of his mind for years. Now, she was the faceless shadow who clamped his cheeks with iced palms and soundlessly laughed in his face.

He frowned as he rummaged through boxes on the narrow bookcase — inside them were pins and pebbles and even clothing pegs. He clicked open a willow box bursting with costume jewellery. Jay sucked in a breath — it was getting late, and his face was hot and clammy through his balaclava. The others would be waiting by the Chevrolet, joking that one of them had finally been arrested. But Jay knew he’d find something precious hidden somewhere — he had been in situations like this before. He automatically reached under the king-sized bed, finding a sleek, silver jewellery box there. Taking off the lid, his eyes feasted on diamonds. Bingo. A stunning ring encrusted with five real diamonds twinkled at him from its own, red-cushion. He thought it had to be a wedding ring as he slipped it on his gloved pinky finger. He crammed handfuls of the shiny stuff in his pack. With all the catches he’d made today, Jay was sure Dave, Ivan and Henry would drool over his treasure trove.


A door thudded shut. Jay’s euphoria nose-dived in his stomach. He pushed the box back under the bed and stumbled towards the closet. He collided into the chest of a petite woman, her face contorted with rage.

He knew who she was.


“Who the hell are you? Get out of my house! Please, please get—get out of my…” Emily sobbed, her anger replaced by fear.

She trembled at the sight of him. She didn’t see him — she only saw the masked coward in front of her. Maybe he was the same person as the thief charade he assumed. But he wished he wasn’t. He wished…

“I won’t hurt you,” he tugged off his balaclava.

“Jay! Wh—what…” Emily’s eyes lit up in recognition. Her hands flew to her mouth.

“I had no choice,” he said.

Emily looked like she was steeling herself — she stepped back towards the final chuckle of indigo sunset, rooting her back to the wall. “What the hell do you want?”


Jay took one step towards her and she shrieked. “Don’t hurt me don’t hurt me please please—”

“Why the hell do you think I’d—”

“Look what you’re doing!” she yelled, pointing a shivering, accusatory finger at the ring flashing on his pinky. “You think someone who breaks into other peoples’ houses also isn’t capable of bashing their heads in?”


“Of course not,” Jay furrowed his brow and slipped off the diamond ring. “Look, just don’t say anything and I’ll be out of your hair.”


Emily stared at him. An uncomfortable feeling of transparency seized Jay — spurring a desire within him to be engulfed by the expanding night.

“How did you find my address?” she insisted.

“I didn’t,” he replied honestly. He continued when he saw the condemnation in her eyes. “We drove up here to this affluent nook of Whitehorse for business.”

“We?” she pressed.

“The rest of us who…” Jay helplessly gestured with his hands. He took off his backpack. He tipped the rest of her jewellery on her bed. “Who steal jewellery for a living.”

“You say that as if it were your job.”


“It is,” Jay said.

She gave him a disgusted look — the exclamation unbelievable hung from her lips.

“You’re not the boy I knew. You were amazing, Jay. You cracked jokes at the on-campus coffee shop between our lectures and gave me pens from the nerdy stash you kept in your drawer.”


The burrow containing his memories scorched inside him: Her peach and mint kisses — feathers tickling his cheeks and pecking out his joyous laughs. The salty taste of her tears when his mum passed away at the funeral, and again after his best friend’s fatal accident. Recalling those moments changed the copper pigments of his irises to watery steel — he couldn’t remember the last time he cried.

“You’re married I take it,” he managed to steady his pitch, eyeing the diamond ring he placed on her bed.

“Yeah,” she said. “Just…stop doing this. You know I’m sorry for what happened to you — for losing all your loved ones so close to each other and…and for dropping out of med school.”


Jay ignored his growing discomfort. It felt too close to self-loathing. He was wearing the feeling; a heavy cloak clamped at his throat. He nodded at the Da Vinci painting — Starry Night. “You’re an art teacher now?”

“I teach at the local Primary School.”

Jay took a proper look at her — moonlight dewy on her cheeks and dreamy in her blue eyes. She wore a vintage, flowing dress.

“Everything worked out for you.”

“It worked out because I wanted it enough.”

Those words were acidic in Jay’s heart. “You didn’t go through hell like I did. You were lucky.”


Emily looked at him in that weird way again — like he was an insane stranger. Green light slithered on her collarbone — a shapeshifting snake of light wagging a magenta tail. Jay spun to face the window in awe. The northern lights.


“Those lights…we found that barn in Alaska during the uni summer holidays, remember? We watched them together, and…” Jay couldn’t keep the emotion from his voice.

Emily crossed her arms. “I’m married, Jay!”

“It was breath-taking, with the lights dancing through the sky.”

“Your life isn’t over,” Emily shrugged. “If you want to feel good again, why don’t you just be a better person? I made a choice, and so did you.”


She indicated to the balaclava clenched in his hands. A car pulled into the drive. Jay and Emily snapped out of their trance. They had been locked in a world containing just the two of them — as hauntingly familiar as it was foreign.

“Get out. You can’t contact me again, you know that.”

Jay sidled out the back door.

“Hello dear,” came a smooth, baritone voice from the front porch, muffled from where Jay hid.


He tried to catch a glimpse of Emily, but all he saw was the merged shadows of herself and her husband embracing on the front lawn.

Jay followed the magical path in the sky. He threw his gloves and balaclava into the darkness — he knew he couldn’t go back. He reached for his phone, planning to call a cab. This time he was glad for the memory of the stars; for the winding train of alien green wending above; leading him back home.


Thank you for reading! :)