Pieces in Time

For his birthday, he got a telescope. And in an instant, it transported him to other worlds. To cities filled to the brim. To cities decimated and dim. He’d seen these scenes before. Recognized them. Places he’d been and placed he wanted to see. Those he’d read about in school. And those with nothing but fools.

He recoiled from the telescope and swatted it away, watched it shatter on the floor. The splintered glass sprang against the window, glittering like the stars in the night sky. His eyes fixed on them. Then on the stars behind them. On the visions of then and now and not far off.

As the images stayed with him as he looked up at the stars, reflecting back a world brand new and a world battered and cruel, he found himself to be just another fool.