"Oh blast it all!" Dr. Delbert Doppler grumbled as he squinted through the eyepiece of his beloved telescope. "I could have sworn I gave you a thorough cleaning last week, Stella." He sat back in the worn chair and gazed down the length of the old observatory telescope. "You seem to be aging just about as well as I am old girl." He adjusted the pair of pince-nez that rested on his nose amidst the abundance of baggy wrinkles. With a sigh, he brushed away his graying hair from his face to resume his work. While his hairline was receding, at least he still had his; something his brothers were jealous of. After some fiddling with the knobs and switches on the control panel, he attempted to look through the lens once more. All he saw was an indecipherable blur. Sighing, he sat back again and rubbed his chin in thought. Maybe he needed a second opinion. "Amelia? Do you mind joining me for a moment, Dear?"
In a matter of moments, Doppler heard footsteps on the stairs behind him. "Delbert is something wrong?" Amelia's faded red hair was pulled back from her wrinkled, but dignified face. She moved with the grace and ease that she always had; her athleticism in her youth kept her body in peak physical condition even in her old age.
"Oh, no I simply needed your opinion on something." He beckoned her over as he explained. "I'm trying to focus Stella, but I cannot seem to determine which of these two is the clearer depiction. I need to know so I can be sure which way to adjust it." He stepped aside to let her in and showed her the two choices.
After a few moments of deliberation, the felinid finally spoke, frowning. "Delbert, it seems quite obvious that the second one is clearer. I can't see anything at all in the first, but in the second, the nebula is as plain as day."
"Plain as…." He trailed off as he squeezed in to take another look. Amelia carefully got out of his way. Concerned, she let him sit. Delbert switched between settings, dismay grew on his face. As before, all he could see in either setting was more describable as a smudge more than as a nebula. "Amelia I don't… I-I can't…." He knew that his eyes had been worsening over the years, but he didn't realize how poor his eyesight truly was. He leaned back once more and removed his glasses to rub his tired eyes.
"Delbert, I'm terribly sorry love." His wife placed a comforting, weathered hand on his shoulder. "We'll figure something out. We always do."
He sighed devastated. "Amelia, almost my entire life and certainly my entire career has been about looking at these stars. I'm sure I've told you, but I first grew interested when I looked to them as a means of escaping my brother. In a way they did. They brought me to you. But now… But now I look out the window and all these eyes can see is darkness. The space station is just an ominous glow. I can't see the stars with even my most powerful telescope. It's over."
"Oh don't be so melodramatic." She gave a light chuckle hoping it would help diffuse the situation. "Sure, you can't see the stars, but you certainly have your books, your children, your grandchildren and me." She squeezed his shoulder gently. "Surely that's not nothing."
"No it's not." He put his hand over hers, and grasped them. "But even now it takes me a whole day to get through a book I could have finished in one or two hours. It won't be long until I can no longer accomplish even that." Turning around he carefully cupped her face with a bony, knobby hand. "It will only be a matter of time before I can't see your face at all." Fear and worry lined his face in a way he hadn't felt for a long time. Not since he had to prepare himself on a daily basis for the possibility that he may never see his wife again. Now he had to face that all over again, albeit in a different manner than before.
Softly, Amelia takes his hands and starts to urge him out of the seat. "There's no sense moping here, Love. I'll make your favorite tea and sit by the fireplace downstairs. How does that sound?"
He nodded in compliance. "That sounds wonderful, dear." He stood to follow her lead and made his way towards the staircase. To his aggravation, his arthritis had been flaring up recently causing him to limp slightly. He did his best to hide it from Amelia though. She had enough to worry about at the moment, but his wife noticed that he was walking slower than he should be.
She frowned and turned to observe him carefully. "Delbert…. Your knee is bothering you again isn't it?"
"Of course not dear." He didn't like lying to her, but he felt it was necessary. He was however terrible at lying to her and she read him as plainly as a children's book.
Sighing, she closed the gap between them and took him by the arm. "I know what you're trying to do, but it alarms me further that you prefer to be dishonest with me than to let me help you."
He knew there was no hiding it. "Well there might be some discomfort…."
Leading him back to the telescope's seat, she sat him back down. "Just wait here, I'll return shortly." She kissed him lightly on the cheek and disappeared down the stairs. It wasn't long before she returned however with a particular object in her hand.
"No."
"Oh come now Delbert, you're acting so much like a stereotypical old man that it sad. It's just a cane."
Childishly, he refused. There was nothing wrong about the cane in question; it was just a simple cane. It had been gifted to him by his children when he turned 40 as a gag. He knew he was old, but the cane made him feel positively ancient. "Amelia I don't think that is completely necessary."
"You know that the doctor wants you to take the weight off of your knee when your arthritis flares up. Please, do it for me?" Her face softened and placed the wooden object in his hand and brushed his hair behind his floppy ear.
With a sigh, he bowed to her will once more. "Fine…." He took it in his knobby hand and used it to help him stand. He grasped her hand with his unoccupied one and approached the stairs. There was a moment's hesitation. He had never had an accident, but his old age made him nervous about falling down the stairs that he had spent years travelling, but a reassuring glance from his wife gave him the courage to brave the steps before him. It took him some time to reach his armchair downstairs but Amelia remained patiently by his side as she always had. Through everything, they had been by each other's side whenever they could manage it. While it was true that she had been on quite a few voyages in her career, but they were always together in spirit.
"Now you sit here, love and I'll fix your tea." She kissed him gently on the forehead and went off to the kitchen.
The retired astrophysicist gave a small smile as he watched her go and hung his cane on the back of the armchair so it was out of his range of perception. He picked up a book that he had started earlier and flipped to where he had stopped. He held the novel close to his face so he could read the lettering. He had been too proud to purchase large-print books so he stuck to this particular method of compensating for his eyesight. He had barely managed a page before his wife returned with two steaming cups. She gently slid into his lap and placed one of the cups in his hand. She lay her head against his steadily beating heart as they sat together in a unified, but pleasant silence. After a few moments, Amelia could have sworn that their pulses were synchronized, perfectly in tune. Even if for a few seconds, it was there. She purred happily at the reminder of their tight bond which caused her husband to smile for the first time since the distressing development.
"Amelia, where would I be without you?"
"On the business-end of a pirate's laslock. And what of me?"
"Spend eternity being compressed to the singularity of a black hole."
"I love you Delbert, no matter what happens."
"You took the words from my mouth, dear."
They remained in each others' arms until Amelia drifted off to sleep in his lap. Delbert reached for a nearby blanket and draped it over the two of them and kissed her lightly on the forehead. "Goodnight love." He too fell into a deep slumber just as he always liked it. With her.