Eye Test
You woke up this morning to another envelope under your door. This time, strangely, you didn’t feel fear, only a dreadful sense of calm. Of course he was here. Of course he knows everything. It feels as if he thinks your thoughts before you think them yourself.
Unlike the previous envelopes, this one felt flimsy, nearly empty. Inside it was only a single tiny strip of paper, the kind you’d get inside a fortune cookie. On one side, slightly smudged, the phrase: “I miss my home.” On the other, what looked like lucky numbers at first.
You were lucky, this time, though. It only took you a few minutes to realize they were GPS coordinates. And so now you’re here, standing in front of a display case at the exact location of the coordinates. Staring at a collection of pitted, dull gray chunks of meteorite – and a few “meteorwrongs.”
You’ve checked behind the case, and all around it. You even, when the coast was clear, briefly got on your hands and knees and peered underneath it. No envelope.
“I miss my home.” What’s that supposed to mean? Space? Does he want you to build a damn rocket ship and fly to space to get your next envelope?
Unless…
Before, when you’ve passed the door leading up to the observatory, it’s been closed and locked, but today it is ajar.
You climb up the stairs within, flight after flight, until you reach a small hallway containing a blackboard and some cabinets, with an ominous, heavy steel door at one end. You push against it, and are temporarily blinded by the rush of sunlight on the other side. You’re on the roof! You grip the cold metal railing of the staircase in front of you with both hands, afraid to slip on the accumulated snow, and climb until you finally reach your destination: the dome itself, which is lit with an eerie red light.
In the center, of course, is the telescope. But off to the side, resting on a small cart, tied with a red ribbon, is a spyglass, the kind you’d see a ship’s captain look through in an old painting. You pick it up – it’s heavy, you think maybe brass? – and look through the eyepiece. This is what you see: