13 WINDOWS

Chapter 7 Part 1: The TELESCOPE

At 12:21 AM Serena woke up suddenly from something disturbing that happened in her dream. She couldn't put her finger on what it was. She got up out of the sleeping bag. She had set up her telescope earlier after the boxes of all of her stuff had finally arrived. She looked into the telescope and directed it at the moon.

Rupert stirred.

"You should come look at this, man! Holy shit! It's fucking gorgeous, dude!" She was examining the craters on the moon.

"No. I'm afraid of the man in the moon," he said half joking.

"Come on. Take a look. There's nothing up there. It's just cheese," joked Serena. Rupert stood up, still naked. The whole city lay before him. "Now that is what I call exposure therapy," said Serena laughing. She knew her method of anxiety therapy had worked. He was so much more relaxed now.

Rupert walked over to the telescope. "I've never looked through one of these before." He looked through the eyepiece, and he could see a crater on the moon. It was the kind of view he had only seen in movies or in a National Geographic magazine. It was a powerful telescope.

"God you can really see everything, can't you? Imagine the size of the meteors that must have been hitting the moon to make those craters," he said truly awestruck by what he was seeing.

"Yes and better those meteors were hitting the moon than us. That's another reason why we're so lucky to be on this planet. We're shielded from danger by the moon," she said quietly.

"Ha!" laughed Rupert cynically. "There have been days in my life I would have rather been on the moon. Trust me."

"Oh Rupert. I think you just need a good hump every once in a while. You don't need a therapist." Serena had always felt that Rupert was too attached to Dr. Clayborne.

Rupert felt defensive whenever she insulted his doctor. "Nina is one of my best friends. She's more than a doctor," he said slightly irritated.

"Oh did I touch a nerve? Got the hots for the doctor?" she teased.

"Excuse me?" Rupert stared at Serena very seriously. But it was his poker face. The truth was he thought about having sex with Dr. Clayborne constantly. But it was something that he never brought up in therapy. How could he?

Serena looked him in the eyes carefully. "Okay. I believe you. You don't love your doctor secretly."

"No I love you. You know that. Jesus Christ I feel like I'm on trial." Serena leaned in over the telescope and gave Rupert a gentle kiss on the mouth.

"Just teasing you. Take it easy," she said with a smile.

Serena tilted the telescope down towards the nightlights of the city. "Take a look. There's a whole world out there you've been missing." Rupert peeked through the lens again.

"This is unbelievable! Have you ever spied on anyone with this?" he asked, fascinated by the possibilities.

"Yes at my parents. I once saw my neighbours having sex. Then I saw them at Summerhill Market and was like 'Hey how are you?' and all that, but you know, all I can think about is what I saw."

"You're a voyeur!" said Rupert intrigued.

Rupert started looking into the windows of far off buildings downtown. He could see all sorts of miniature stories out there. He saw a wine and cheese party on the balcony of a penthouse nearby, a 24 hour exercise gym, and a taxi driver arguing with a bearded man whose car he had rear-ended.

He tilted the telescope towards south Rosedale and St. Jamestown. Then he tried to figure out where Dr. Clayborne's office was. He searched for a few minutes and was surprised to actually find her. She was in her office working on her computer. She was alone.