The Telescope -

Two teenage boys use a telescope for a science project. One finds that it has other uses.

“Nice home telescope, dude.”

“Thanks Rick,” Kevin said, beaming with pride. “It’s got a 4.5 inch aperture, and a 450mm focal length with a stabilized mounting system, eye pieces that provide 26x and 75x magnification, and a built-in camera.”

“Okay, a little more information than I needed, dude. I just need to know, where do we point it for our science project?”

“At the sky.”

“Really? I’d have never guessed.”

“Venus will be rising fairly soon,” Kevin said, chuckling. “We should get a good view from here.”

They were on Kevin’s elevated deck in his backyard. The deck ran across the back of the house just under the second floor windows, which gave an excellent view of the sky. It also helped that his suburban neighborhood had very few tall trees nearby.

“You’re really into this astronomy stuff, aren’t you?” Rick said as he looked through the telescope.

“Yeah, ever since I was a little kid. My parents got me this scope two years ago as a junior high graduation present. I’ve gotten some good shots of Mars, Venus, even Saturn on a clear night.”

“You’ve a great spot for it up here. You could also spy on your neighbors pretty easy,” he said as he pointed the scope downward.

“Hey man, be careful with that,” Kevin said in a worried tone.

“Don’t worry, I’ve used a telescope before. I know…wait a minute,” Rick said, as he jerked upright and pointed. “That’s Jennifer Pearson’s house over there. I saw her in her bedroom. It’s like I was right in there with her.”

“Hey, that’s not what we’re here for,” Kevin said, but Rick had bent back to the eyepiece.

“Whoa, dude, she’s getting undressed! Hey, didn’t you say this had a built-in camera?”

“Rick, that is totally wrong. We can’t invade her privacy like that, and we’re sure not taking any pictures. You can’t do this!”

“Why not? Come on, she’s totally hot!”

“I don’t care how hot she is, this is not cool.” Kevin stepped forward and grabbed his arm, careful not to bump the scope. “Let’s just finish our project.”

“Fine, she moved away from the window anyway,” Rick said with a sigh as he straightened. “Wow, you are just way too uptight. You gotta have some fun sometimes.”

“I have fun looking at the sky. Now come on, let’s get this done.”

They spent the next hour looking at the sky and recording their observations, mostly in strained silence. After Rick left, Kevin spent some time on his computer polishing up the results. Then, after making sure his parents and little brother were downstairs and not likely to interrupt, he opened the other files on his computer. The recordings he’d made of Jennifer in her room, changing clothes, trying on swimsuits, and his favorite, of her checking her naked body for blemishes in front of her full-length mirror. That kept him occupied for a good half hour.