Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Your character, by chance or habit, peers through a telescope. They see something unusual — what is it?

Posted in Dystopian on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 52 stories

The Mistakes We've Made

Shortlisted for Contest #134 ⭐️

Content warning: Some swearingThe only problem with breaking into your neighbor's house is if someone else beats you to it.The Mastersons are gone for the month, summering in Fiji or Acapulco or wherever people go when they're filthy rich and can afford to flaunt it by using words like "summering." Before leaving, they'd asked me to watch their house. For free, of course. I smiled and told them they had nothing to worry about. It wasn't until their blue Bugatti sped down our dead-end street that I finally uncrossed the fingers hiding behind ...

47 likes 43 comments 43
Read story

The Forsaken World

Submitted to Contest #134

Vladimir adjusted his heavy winter jacket as he trudged up the icy metal staircase outside the observation tower. He’d always aimed the Agency’s electro-telescope outwards, beyond the known solar system. Tonight is different. The observatory’s entire structure creaks as its viewing dome rotates one hundred and eighty degrees. Vladimir refocuses on a glimmering blue orb thirty-four million miles away, his home planet’s closest neighbour.#It had been almost two thousand years since the exodus from the third planet. Earth’s ten thousand survivo...

27 likes 15 comments 15
Read story

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Submitted to Contest #134

Chandra Lal peers through his telescope at the deep, ebony sky. It’s a clear night, his favorite kind of night for star gazing. Although he’s in an attic and not outside like he would prefer, he’s pushed open the window to get a clearer view above him. He focuses the lens to get a better look at two of the four Jovian moons which rotate around Jupitar. As he turns the tube towards Saturn to see if he can get a glimpse at any of its visible moons, he hears a couple dogs barking below him. He checks his watch to see how much time he has left b...

27 likes 16 comments 16
Read story

Walterisms

Submitted to Contest #134

“Judy! Judy get in here! You have to see this!” Walter had his 1944 vintage Nash Kelvinator binoculars pressed firmly into his eye sockets, while not so discreetly looking out the window of his study. The leather strap that once was new and sturdy was now coming apart at the studs on the ends and was filled with warped cracks all along its length. Those binoculars had seen so much in their 78 years, and so had Walter.Judy screamed something inaudible from the kitchen amongst the banging of pots and pans. He put the binoculars down and turned...

22 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

Mosquito Men of the Mata Atlântica

Submitted to Contest #134

Okay, so there wasn’t actually an astronomy salesman at the store peddling telescopes and promising me a wonderful evening on my balcony watching celestial objects like the moons of Jupiter. I dished out two thousand reais–roughly three hundred and sixty dollars–for a StarBlast refractor telescope because the picture on the box showed a father hovering over his son who looked through the telescope with his lips pursed in a ‘Wow’ moment and the father pointing up to the Milky Way galaxy at the other end of the glossy box, which, probably glow...

16 likes 13 comments 13
Read story

Peering Through The "What-If" Telescope

Submitted to Contest #134

"I spy, through my telescope's eye, something strange and unusual!""What is that supposed to mean?," a swaggering wise guy asks.A meek geek wearing a striped shirt and broken glasses brightens up and starts rambling. "My name is Norman. Tonight is the night of the Full Moon. I peer through my Big Red Telescope and what do I see? Something very strange and unusual! A world where one exists but are polar opposites. Winter here, Summer there. Shy and awkward here, confident and popular there. If you are successful here, a total loser there. Yo...

15 likes 12 comments 12
Read story

Negotiations

Submitted to Contest #134

 “When the red planet transits the constellation of Gemini,” the white-bearded old wizard blathered, “there is an increased probability of windstorms. But when the red planet crosses through Leo, you may expect at least a ten-day of warm, dry air. In particularly dry years, such a transit may signal a lasting drought.” My jaws ached with the effort of keeping the yawn clenched behind my teeth. Finally, I surrendered, trying to crack open my mouth as narrowly as possible. Maybe he wouldn’t notice, I thought hopefully. Even if the less...

14 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Lunar Apocalypse

Submitted to Contest #134

           Astronomical enthusiast, Walter Higgins, stood with his son, Jason, on the back deck of their Southern California home one evening peering through his Celestron Power Seeker Telescope. The sound of the waves crashing against the pier had a calming affect on Walter. During the day, the beach was crowded with thousands of people, but at night, it was peaceful. That was the time that he and his family sat outside taking in the cool air and stared at the billions of stars that lit...

13 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Cry The Wolfe

Submitted to Contest #134

ALERT: Childish behaviour and Adult profanity… “JÜRGEN! Kommen Sie!”“What is it?”“Quickly! I can’t believe I’m seeing this!”“Seeing what?”“I was focusing on der exoplanet, Proxima B and I spotted a naked woman on der planet walking away from my view!... Ja! You can see her tucus, look!”“Ridiculous!!? Let me see…”Dr. Jürgen Muller, head of the German branch of SETi - Search For Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, nudged his colleague, Instrumentation Engineer Thomas Wolfe, away from the telescope’s eyepiece.“…Are you crazy? There’s no naked ...

13 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Blur

Submitted to Contest #134

This telescope has been in the attic for as long as I can remember. It's tall, taller than me and an old sort of metal, shiny silver. It stands in its own space next to the big window right at the end of the room. Right now, the moonlight spilling in from the massive floor to ceiling window shines right on the telescope and makes it look like there's nothing else in the room. I pad softly across the wooden floorboards towards the telescope, creaky enough to wake my entire family but by now my bare feet know the places to step in order to kee...

13 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

A Sky So Clear

Submitted to Contest #134

The sky was so clear you could see a million winking stars in an ocean of inky black. The heat from the desert subsided as the night had fallen, which forced her to pull her winter coat and hat on as she set up her telescope in its usual spot. She’d been fascinated with worlds beyond her own since she was old enough to admire the sky. In her pursuit of finding the answers to the unanswerable questions, like are we alone or where did life start, she’s traveled all over the world, but this spot of land in the middle of nowhere was the place th...

12 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Doomed

Submitted to Contest #134

Doomed It was a night that quickly became an integral part of the college’s rich oral history, tales of past glorious deeds passed down from class to class over the years. Many of today’s incoming freshman dismiss it out hand, quickly discarding it into the abyss of the laughingly exaggerated, or even the impossible. But those who believe in the importance of tradition in our institutions will listen intently to their campus elders as they recount the stunning events of that crisp fall night in 1968 and will later revel in retelling t...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Absorbed

Submitted to Contest #134

"God, my heavenly father, I understand you only throw at us what we can endure but how can I recover from this? Of what use am I now that I've failed to protect my family? What is the point of learning from this lesson? What is the point of being stronger, If the people I was supposed to protect: are gone."A bang from the closet shocked me and jarred my concentration— I lost my prayer. I hadn't touched that closet, or heard any noise come out of it in years. I made my way over carefully, snakes appeared in the house from time to time: it was...

11 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Hoarding Secrets

Submitted to Contest #134

My Uncle Bart was mad. And a hoarder. I'd been convinced for years that his neglected mental health would be what dragged me back to his dilapidated house and into his troubled life. I never once considered a freak avalanche of real estate magazines, could do it too. "Take the next left and a right at Hendricks." My sister, Layla, rotated the street map for the third time. I smirked and took a right. I could have found Uncle Bart's house with my eyes closed. "Why you never had to visit the old coot when we were kids, I'll never understand."...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

The Nothingness in the stars

Submitted to Contest #134

 “Ola Papa,” she said as she trotted her way to her beloved grandfather,“Buenos Dias, Carina” he responded, looking away from the lens.“Oh, how beautiful you look today with your little dress. Did mama get you that dress Mina?” he asked in his thick Spanish accent.She shyly looked away with a smile, hiding the blushing from his gentle prodding.“Come sit with papa. I want to show you the universe.”“what’s a uni-verse, papa?” she politely asked. Her tone was genuine, innocent like a child’s should be. She sat perched on his lap, facing th...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story beyond our own world.

Science Fiction – 50 stories

Write about a character who has a ‘hot and cold’ personality — or is affected by someone like this.

Character – 30 stories

End your story with a character looking out on a new horizon.

Narrative – 63 stories

Write from the POV of someone, or something, that experiences gravity differently.

Science Fiction – 27 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel