Open Your Eyes

                 My sister had walked in my room. I still had my telescope out as I thought everyone was asleep. I looked at my sister in shock. "Teddy. What are you doing awake? And what's that object?"

                 'Damn it.' I was busted. It's only a matter of time before she tells our parents what I'm doing. 'Should I just confess up to what I'm doing? Or try to hide it?' My mind races. 

                "Teddy?" She calls out to me. "Thaddeus!" She yells quietly knowing if she was too loud she'd wake up our parents. 

               "Please don't tell mom or dad." I reply fearfully. 

               "What's that thing hanging out the window?" She asks looking at the telescope. I sigh and explain to her "It's called a telescope. It allows someone to view the night-"

                "So you're telling me that thing looks into heaven?" She intrupts me. I clarify, "It allows me to get a closer view of a star." 

               She looks at me confused. "Star? You mean the angels watching over us?" I remembered that my sister believes that the little dots are angels. Not stars. "Ursula would you mind if I explained how I see them?" She still looks at me, puzzled at my words. 

                   "I don't believe we are in the center of the universe." Ursula looks at me in horror. "I don't think that those little colorful dots in the night are angels. In fact, to me, they are massive balls of plasma. Buring so brightly they can be seen from so far." I stopped and looked at my sister's horrified face. 

                "Wh-what are you talking about?" She stuttered her words. "You're a monster for thinking that. How can the heavens be nothing but massive balls?" She began sobbing. "Dad, no the law wouldn't let you think that." 

                "I know." I spoke with pain in my voice. Knowing what I just said hurt her. To think the way I do is consider insane and I would be cast out as a heretic. Still, I want my sister to understand. "Follow me Ursula." She hesitantly follows me to the widows. "Take a look." 

                   The night sky filled with red, yellow, white, and blue stars scattered across the sky. A Blue and Purple Nebula visible and taking up some of the night sky to the south. The ground outside lit up by the shine of the stars. The center of the galaxy colliding with another. My eyes glued to it. "Imagine the different worlds out there. With different stars." I speak softly. "The vast space in between them. All come together for our viewing pleasure." My sister is silent for a moment.

                  "Thinking about it that way. Wouldn't that mean that we are nothing compared to them?" Her tears still flowing down her face. 

                I back us up so we can't see the stars anymore. "There's so much to discover out there. We are something. We are alive. We get to discover what the universe wants to show us." I pause for a moment. "Join me Ursula. Let's show this world the real universe. "

                "I-I don't know. I'm scared. What if you're wrong?" She looks at me. I give her a confident smile. "I need some time to think." I nod staying silent. She then runs off out of my room. I lay down on my bed thinking to myself. 'What the hell was I thinking?'