Teddy’s Scope

Teddy was looking out his telescope. Again.

I couldn’t decide whether I admired him for his persistence or thought he was crazy. What’s that saying? The definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

That was certainly Teddy with his telescope. Every night. 9 p.m. Without fail. No matter the weather, even if he didn’t feel good. We went and he stared out the telescope for a least 20 minutes.

Still, crazy didn’t seem to fit. Nothing else was odd about his behavior. 

I’d asked him about the telescope before. What he’s looking for. Why he’s so insistent on looking every single day. He never says much though. Just that he likes the stars. Or he likes to remember there’s a whole universe out there, that it’s not just about us. Things like that. But there has to be more to it.

I don’t try to sneak up. I stop by and talk to Teddy during telescope time often enough that he knows it’s always a possibility.

“Hey Teddy,” I say. “Anything interesting today?”

“Hi Sam. Not yet.” Teddy replies while keeping his eye to the scope.

“So no asteroids or meteors or UFOs?” I pry.

“Not yet…” Teddy says it like he’s expecting something out of the ordinary to happen at any moment. Like he chose tonight, of all nights, to look through his telescope. Not as is he did this every day.

“But, I mean, really,” I tried to find a way to be delicate, but then just has to come out and say it. “Do you ever see anything interesting?”

“Yeah,” Teddy said, still not looking away from the night sky through the scope. “I mean, sometimes.”

“Like what?”

“Like sometimes shooting stars.”

“That’s it?” I try not to sound as unimpressed as I feel. That can’t be why he’s always out here.

“Umm…. I guess. Yeah. They’re pretty cool when you spot them though.”

I stoop down to the ground and pluck some clovers from the grass. I start to pick off their leaves when I realize something. I’ve never looked through Teddy’s telescope before. I pause and try to remember whether or not I’ve ever asked to look. Or whether Teddy has ever offered to let me look.

I decide to go for it.

“Hey Teddy?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I look?”

Teddy pauses. He sneaks a peek at his watch. When I catch him checking the time, I do the same. 9:18. He’ll make me wait, I bet to myself.

“Umm… I guess. In two minutes, ok?”

Should have put money on it. “Sure. Ok.” I agree.

I pass the two minutes intermittently plucking clovers and looking up to the sky. It’s a clear night, but you can’t see many stars with just your eyes. Too much light from the neighborhood.

I check my watch again. 9:20. I don’t push though.

At 9:22, Teddy finally steps away from the scope. “All yours,” he tried to sound confident, but I can sense nervousness in him. He must not share the scope very often.

“Thanks Teddy,” I say with real kindness and sincerity. I am wondering what it is he sees through his scope. I notice Teddy kicking the ground, not sure of what to do with his hands as they move from his pockets to crossed in front of his chest and back to his pockets.

I gently lower my eye into position. It takes me a moment to get situated. I can see my eyelashes. Then I can’t quite focus. I pull my head back and look to see where the adjustment knobs are.

“This one, right?” I say, gesturing with my right hand and looking at Teddy.

“Yeah. Uhh… yeah.”

“Thanks,” I say with a smile. 

I lower back into position and adjust the knob. And I can’t believe what I’m seeing. It’s the moon. Like I’m seeing it on TV. No, better than that. Like it’s right in front of me, nearly close enough to reach out and touch.

“Whoa!” I try not to shout, I don’t want to further upset Teddy. But this is amazing. “Teddy, this is a super powerful scope! I had no idea-“

I’m stopped mid sentence by what I see playing out through the scope. It can’t be. I blink a few times then readjust my eye.

“Teddy? I think I see something. But, I mean, it can’t be. It looks like-“

“Is he there?” The words tumble out before Teddy can stop himself.

“He?!?” I reply, astonished, not daring to look away. 

It is a he. It’s a… a… I don’t know what. An alien, I guess, because it’s definitely not human and it doesn’t look like any animal I’ve ever seen. It looks scaley, stands on two legs, I mean, I think those would be legs, it’s walking on them. But it has a lot of arms. And each arm seems to have a light on the end of it. I can’t tell where it’s head is. Maybe it doesn’t have one.

“Teddy? What is that? Who is that?” I still won’t look away, but I can feel Teddy has moved up right next to me, itching for a chance to look through the scope.

“I, uh… I don’t know his name. I call him Ned. After my grandpa. My grandpa introduced me to him, but my grandpa didn’t have a name for him.”

“So you’ve seen this thing before?”

“Umm… I guess. Yeah. Like almost once a week for the last year.”

“What?!? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would you have believed me?

“No. But you still could have told me. Or showed me.”

“Grandpa said to keep him a secret. He said that people would think we’re crazy.”

“Not when you have proof!”

This whole time, I was still looking through the scope. Ned seemed to just be going about his business. I couldn’t really tell what that business was, but he was just walking around, doing… something.

Then, he stopped. He was right in the middle of the frame of the scope. He turned to face me, like he knew I was looking at him.

“Umm… Teddy? He’s looking at me.”

“No,” Teddy sounded disappointed. “He doesn’t know we’re here.”

“It sure seems like he does,” I said. “He’s lining up all those lights on the ends of his arms. Bringing them all together in front of himself. It forming, like, a big headlight and he’s shining it right at us.”

“You’re messing with me,” Teddy said. “You’re mad that I didn’t tell you about this sooner.”

I stepped away from the telescope. “No, seriously Teddy. Take a look.”

Teddy bent down, adjusted the knob and peer through the scope. “Whoa! Sam, you’re right. What’s he doing?”

“I swear he can see us. Doesn’t it seem like he’s looking right at us?”

“Umm… I guess. But there’s no way-“

“I’m gonna wave at him,” I say and start waving my arms real big. “Tell me if anything happens.”

“No, nothing, still just all the arm-lights in one beam- wait! He’s moved one arm out of the formation. He’s… he’s waving back!”