Page 10 - Fiction Vol 1 No 2

when the vision was replaced by a car, or a and couldn’t help grinning himself. He had his own
passerby on their mobile phone. Very soon his golden nugget right before him.
back was aching and his neck felt burning hot
despite the sunscreen he’d applied. He drained the Unfortunately, the magical telescope couldn’t
last of his water, took one last fleeting look penetrate the modern hotel or its 1859
through the telescope and froze. counterpart. When the gleeful diggers decided to
celebrate with a drink, Harold packed away his
All of the miners had halted, their gazes fixed on equipment with great care. The excitement was
something to the right of the frame. Suddenly a simmering behind his disbelief at having
rush of soldiers swept past, followed by the rest, ‘witnessed’ all he had seen.
shaking their fists. Without looking away Harold
loosened the screw, then swivelled the telescope For a time he simply sat in his car, hands on the
until he found the small crowd of people gesturing wheel, staring straight ahead. I have a telescope
wildly. Abruptly the crowd retreated, giving Harold which can see into the past.
a view of two men laid out on the ground, another
trying to revive them – while a fourth man How, though? Some stars burned out before any
laboriously extracted a golden lump from the human on Earth gazed at them. Harold himself
ground. witnessed last night a star’s death that had
happened over seven thousand years ago. He was
Harold lifted his eyes. His mouth hung open. There looking back in time by simply existing so far away
before him, Bakery Hill stood innocently, cars and from the event.
scantily-dressed people milling about in the heat.
Through his telescope, the Welcome Nugget of But astronomers did that all the time. Harold
1859 was being excavated. Harold snapped photos thought back to the night he’d seen the campers
of the trio, the others revived now, holding their at the cookfire. Not campers – pioneers from the
nugget with goofy grins plastered on their faces, 1950s. The difference was that he’d been using a

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