Chapter 2 – The Telescope
The following Saturday, a black SUV stopped outside the small apartment Clara and Lucy rented.
Alexander had made an unusual request.
Would Lucy visit the estate for one afternoon?
Not as entertainment.
As Matthew's guest.
Clara hesitated.
Lucy simply smiled.
The afternoon felt completely different from the gala.
No tuxedos.
No speeches.
No photographers.
Matthew led Lucy upstairs to an observatory hidden inside the mansion's highest tower.
A massive telescope pointed toward the sky.
"My grandfather built this," Matthew signed carefully.
Lucy looked through the telescope.
Saturn floated quietly against endless darkness.
"It's beautiful."
Matthew nodded.
"People think silence is empty."
He looked through the telescope again.
"But space is silent."
"And it's full of everything."
Lucy understood exactly what he meant.
For hours they learned each other's worlds.
Matthew taught her more signs.
Lucy read poems aloud while signing the words she knew.
Neither child noticed Alexander standing quietly outside the observatory door.
Watching.
May you like
Listening.
Realizing how much of his son's life he had never truly entered.
