The Telescope Reading - Of Course - Her Space Holiday, PCP

He lived alone

With his books and his records and his telescope

With all the doors locked

Days piled upon each other one by tedious one

Until the pressure finally created a diamond like thought

And he was instantly sad

Ive read every book

Ive heard every song

And Ive seen every star from the safety of my bedroom

And i am empty

In defeat he slumped forward with his eyes still pressed against the telescope

Just then his lungs began to expand

He blinked rapidly

Alternating his eyes between squinting

And making his eyes as wide as saucers

He cried out, of course

With all the hours spent looking up

It never crossed his mind to veer straight ahead

He spent days upon days taking it all in

He say children grow to become men

And men grow to become fools

He saw hope, beauty, war, strength, weakness, chaos, stillness

He watched until he could recite each scene from memory

Eventually he wrote his own books about what he saw

And he made his own songs about what he thought he had heard

Until almost he himself believed what he was creating to be true

Until lie upon lie piled on top of itself

Until the pressure finally created a pearl-like thought

He spoke to the world

Ive seen all of your lives

And Ive heard all of your conversations

And i am hungry

In frustration

He dropped to his knees

And began to bang his head against the old wooden door

Of course he cried out

And without hesitation

Ha stood up

Put on his coat and hat, and turned the knob

But before hid first step even hit the ground

He was faced with the most unexpected of emotions

One that he could only figure to be

What his favorite books and records refer to as love

Where are you going?

she asked him

I don’t know

Me too she smiled

Ill take you there, she extended her tiny hand

And swept him away with her

They walked until their feet bled

During their journey she told him all the places she had been

And all the people she had met along the way

A new emotion began to unfold inside of him

One he thought he had overheard in a conversation looking through his telescope

It was the word fear

Why would she choose me?

he thought

I know so little

Not wanting to lose her interest

He began telling her stories he thought she might be impressed by

But all they did was make her question his strength and ability to battle the

enemies

That she knew would surely jump out at them one day

But she still kept her faith in him and they continued walking

What amazing things they saw

They danced in dark caves

Warmed their faces by the brightest of fires

And played with brilliant children in the blue Spanish sea

But even amidst all that gorgeousness

Their hands began to slip

First from palms, then to fingertips, then to nothingness

They stood still

She faced south, and he faced west

He called out to her

I’m leaving now, and i blame you for the state we’re in

And through all of our adventures Ive done nothing wrong

And though you’ve taught me how to breathe

I’m taking my new voice and leaving you hear with nothing

She looked back and cried out to him

We drew a map together that you promised you would follow with me

I too am scared

Especially after you stole my strength and made it your own

But i am still reaching for your hand

Knowing it will fit more perfectly than ever

If you will only reach back to me

But he didn’t reach back, he was vain and confused

He tried to make a new map, but he didn’t know where to put the X anymore

So he walked in circles

He lost his rhythm

He froze by the fire

And he drowned in the sea

He made himself what he had feared the most

Incomplete

And even though the decision was his, and his alone

He blamed her for that too

But the whole time she followed him

Looking for fallen twigs and fresh footprints to see where he was going

But all he left in his path were messages written in the dirt with a broken

stick

Scrawled lies of anger and shifted blame

Until one day he wrote the word help when he needed her most

But by then she had stopped trying to read his thoughts

And make sense of his misery

So he headed back to where he started

Back to his books and his records and his telescope

Battered and broken

He finally reached the edge of his street

Only to find her waiting for him

And upon seeing her soft smile

He immediately knew what he had done

He knew what he had lost

He knew how sorry he was

For the first time she was real to him

They sat and spoke about everything they should have

In the beginning of their story

And through all the tears he learned that she had been walking her entire life

And that she wasn’t waiting for him to go into the world with her at all

No, she was in fact waiting for him to invite her into his house

So she could read his books, hear his records and look through the telescope

Behind the safety of his locked door

What a fool he thought

I didn’t realize that with all this time i spent looking out this window

You were right there looking back at it

At me, at this, at us

I already had what you had been traveling these roads searching for

She crumbled under the weight of hearing her own truth

And through their honesty

They were both as strong as they can be

And now under the relief of each note of forgiveness

No thought appeared to them, just a feeling

And he whispered to her

Ive seen your efforts

And i can feel your love for me

And i am whole

I still have places to visit and mistakes to make in private

But take my home and make it your own

Recite lines from my favorite books in the garden

Hear the songs closest to my life while you sleep in my bed

And look through me waving at you through my telescope

He raised his hand and he rested it on her chest

And he drew an X across her heart

Of course he thought

He slowly closed the old wooden door

And he locked it behind him