#elsewhere

"I like being this far out from town. The stars are way better here."

"Even Carthage or Watertown must be better than the Big City, though. When we go there, I don't expect we'll see anything at night other than the neon lights."

"Yeah, probably not. But we will go to the library."

"It's a quarter moon tonight. The next full moon will be on the 17th, they call it the Wolf Moon, you know?" But tonight, the relative positions of the Earth, sun, and moon will cause us to see it half-illuminated — on its eastern side. The best time to see it is around now, because of the low-angled sunlight..." Indeed, the moon hangs bright overhead, and looks almost tipped.

Thistle's mug is filled with hot spiced cider!

"Ooo, spicy. Nice." She looks up. "I guess that a full moon wouldn't be good for stargazing...."

Art is setting up the Telescope, but soon seems lost. "Affix the three-quarters torque screw to tighten the 8 millimeter lens..."

"This thing is fancy, but there are a lot of parts..."

"Can I help? I'm pretty good at putting stuff together..."

"Please!" He says with relief!

"I've been studying the guide that comes with it, but to be honest, the maps of the sky are far more compelling than the chart of assembly..."

Thistle steps in. Her gnarled hands are actually quite nimble. "Well, then, important to get the tool working so you can focus on the fun stuff..."

"That piece there that looks like a tee-vee remote is supposedly a computer? It will turn the device to hone in on specific points in the sky."

"Oh, nice... this is... look, here - it's a servo?"

"A... servo. Right." Art is unfolding a large sky map, under the light of the moon and the nevers (and a helping beam from his Phone.

Thistle makes a face at the instructions, and "improves" the assembly at a point or two.

Surely if she were to affix the spectrometer as SO and the lens at an angle... it might just take advantage of the widget focii and reflect back at perihelion!

Art is watching her, impressed.

"Okay... I think... that'll... yeah." Pause. Tweak. "There."

He brought notepads - actually this is one that Thistle got him for Christmas! he is taking notes of the assembly in a way that makes sense to him. "This way I can put it back together again later, I think. Or at least take it apart without breaking anything."

"Nice thing... you don't have to take it ALL apart. See, there's sections...."

"Oh... oh! Look!" He is peeking through the business end, and his voice is awed. "I can see the moon!"

"That is... look, look." He sits back and tugs Thistle over by her arm. "Every crater, nook and cranny..."

"Yeah?" She looks!

"*&^%$^... looks like somethin' outta a textbook.."

Duly impressed.

"Here..." He tweaks it, not using the computer, but looking at his chart, and squinting to the sky, holding up his hand to measure.... and then points. "You can see Mars! Sometimes it's visible to the naked eye, but you can really make out that it's a planet like this."

"And it's red! Kinda looks like a Never."

"And if you line it up with your fist, then at the far end of your thumb, you should see Venus..."

She follows his directions, making a fist and squinting.

There! A yellowish orb, larger than the reddish blot...

"I plan to save up and purchase the expanded lens. This one goes to 30 times magnification, there are some that go up to 300 that this model supports..."

"Maybe you could see the clouds on Venus, then..."

"It's incredible." He says, awed.

He stares up at the night sky with his own eyes, leaning back, and almost falls over as the wide open sky messes with his sense of balance.

"C'mon, you look. I don't wanna hog it."

His eyes have gone a bit starry themselves as he gazes... up into the sky, and through, and past the stars, and into something beyond. "In... cred...ible..."

Trina smiles a little as she watches his wonder.

A hand reaches over, grasping towards her - trying to find something. Is he reaching for her?

Brushing against the notepad and pen...

"I can see it... strings, connecting..."

One of the nevers hovers over Art, peering into his face, but he gazes past her as though the pink-tinged fairy isn't even there.

She sticks the pen in his hand and holds out the notebook!

He draws rapidly, without looking at the paper. Muttering to himself. "Sculptoris... Polaris... Pyxis... Fornacis... Draconis... Pluto... no, Charon?"

"Pink?" Blinking rapidly, as his eyes try to refocus to see a tiny being practically sitting on his nose.

"Okay, Art... you back?"

"Ahh... ah...." The Never knows this warning and zips away just before he sneezes!

She pulls the notebook away so he doesn't mar the drawing.