THE THING WE SAW

There has been a lot of talk in the journals about me. Harsh talk, decrying my work as fraudulent, and accusing me of being a huckster. They call my research shoddy, talk abut jumped conclusions and a myriad of other unpleasant things. Why? I just cannot understand why people don't believe it.

My research has been going on for a year, since I arrived at Boyersville this past February. I'd traveled down from New York, for a fresher climate. Away from the city smog and things like that. My things arrived in March, and that's when I started the observatory up.

Nothing big, like what I had in the city. There isn't a library in town, so if I want to look for a reference book, it takes a day trip to Laude and several dollars before I can even start looking. Still, it had the advantage of quiet, and darkness.

It went on like this for a few months, me in my observatory, getting a feel for the area. It was a nice place, with clean streets and moral citizens, for the most part. There were a few dregs in the older sections of town, but I didn't venture there. I made good company of the Conductor, because of how often I had to take the train.

It was from this new company that things started. I'd been entertaining the Conductor, and lost track of the time. After seeing a clock and seeing my friend out, I got to my post and began making my observations. The stars looked beautiful that night, bright and shimmering, looking like an embroidery.

But then as I gazed, something was wrong. The stars were twinkling as they did, but some of them were gone... they'd blink out of the patchwork for a minute, then return, like an indecisive seamstress was sowing the thread of the universe.

I watched this spectacle, pencil in hand, taking note of which stars disappeared and when they returned. There goes Alpha Centauri.... and its back now, but Betelgeuse is missing... this went on for quite some time. I fell asleep slouched over my telescope.

In the morning, I sat over the notes while eating breakfast. There was definitely a pattern, but it was a damned cypher. There was something about the lower hemisphere that they seemed more intent with, straying there more often than anything else.