Hello friends,
I stood holding the single action cowboy revolver. It carried six unjacketed, .45 rounds and I fired off all six without aiming very precisely -I simply wanted to see how fast I could fire off a whole cylinder while manually pulling the hammer back with my left hand. I did this three or four times and noticed quick improvement on the speed with which I reloaded six new rounds into the cylinder from my gun belt. I began adding adding flourishes like flicking the cylinder back in with a quick snap of my right wrist, and giving the cylinder a spin once it was seated, letting the rapid, consecutive clicks sound off like a hum; like an Islander fishing reel when a salmon goes for a run. It was an incredibly satisfying sound, although it would have been nice if there were a little less friction and the spin lasted longer.
I began taking aim. Slowly. I looked for targets which would stop the round so I could collect it, smushed and deformed afterward. Luckily There was a profusion of giant scrap-metal fabrications all around me like monuments of industrial decay, even though I seemed to be standing on a piece of ground near the Dairy Queen I grew up near -there are no scrap metal monstrosities there. I took aim at a piece of metal and closed one eye.. I almost fired. Instead I realized that I wasn’t accurately lining up the sights so I opened both eyes and lined up the sights perfectly and fired.
My range was about 30m but I hit the piece of metal I was aiming at precisely how I wanted to hit it. However, upon inspection there was no smushed round to collect -it must have ricocheted or disintegrated. I took aim again. This time I took aim at the open hole at the end of a long metal tube pointed downward, though still about 6 feet off of the ground. Slowly I aimed with both eyes open, lining up the front and rear sight, and when everything was perfect, I fired between breaths.
The hole at the end of the tube changed. I realized that there was something transparent capping the end of that tube which I had just disturbed. I walked up (again, about 30m) and looked at the clear cap which now sat in the hole on an angle. I pulled it out. It was round and about 1.5 inches thick. The outer side was convex while the interior side was concave, and this made me think it was a lens. It was heavy, but since it hadn’t shattered (on the contrary, the round had gone clean through) it made me think it was some kind of advanced polymer. I looked inside the tube and even reached my arm inside, sweeping my arm around trying to locate the round. No luck; it was gone.
There were two female presences although one seems vague and I am/was only cursorily aware of her; the other was Israeli and seemed to be something of an expert on the ‘thing’ I just shot.
To the vague presence, I addressed my initial comments, almost as if I was addressing myself: “This seems like a lens”
The Israeli responded: “It is. This is a telescope. That’s a new advanced lens.” (Paraphrase)
“Is it glass?”
“No, it’s plastic. What glass would we use for a lens?” (Paraphrase)
“Quartz glass because of its low co-efficient for thermal expansion.”
“………”
Then I woke up.
Best,
-Dre
Write-Errantry 