The Man in the Telescope Tower | Teen Ink

The Man in the Telescope Tower

August 30, 2012
By KittyKitty22 BRONZE, Point Pleasant, West Virginia
KittyKitty22 BRONZE, Point Pleasant, West Virginia
4 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
~*:*-sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something-*:*~


As the man in the tower sits in his very latest stage of life, he wonders what caused him to become what he was. He walked, slowly and limping, to one of the many long telescopes that protruded out of the tower. He flipped a switch, causing a yellow box on a string to turn from red to green. The man sits back again, calling his apprentice in while he takes a nap.

Wilfred stared up at the big tower reaching into the clouds. Many, many telescopes pointed in all directions. He had somehow found out about it earlier that day, though he didn't remember how, and had applied for a job for tower keeper. Wilfred didn't remember anything about the day, except for what the previous tower keeper told him. Apparently, he had come in the morning requesting a spot, filled out some papers, and was given the job. He was an apprentice to Frank, the tower keeper as of then.

The tower had been built when traffic lights were invented, and the tower keeper watched every streetlight through one of many telescopes, flipping a switch to change the light color when appropriate. It was a long job, one that required the worker to be on duty at all times. When the tower keeper was decaying in age, an apprentice would be found. Since they aren't very open about the whole thing, not many people know anything about it. A fascinating thing, it is.

Wilfred woke from his dream of his first day on the job.

"Master Wilfred," Harold said from his seat on the opposite side of the room," are you feeling well?"

"You are just an apprentice now, Harold. You know not of the ways of the sickly and old. You need not worry about me. The Tower Keepers Society will come and get me when they see fit, then you can take over," Wilfred said, leaning back in his chair, hands together on his pot belly.

"Okay then, Master Wilfred."

Later that day, Wilfred got a call on the very dusty phone hanging on the wall.

"Wilfred, please come down to the tower base. And tell Harold to resume work without you," the static-like voice on the other end said.

"Goodbye, Harold. Please keep on working as normal. I won't be back."

With those last words and a wave from Harold, Wilfred left.
And, so, a new tower keeper's time in the tower really began.


The author's comments:
I wrote this three years ago...oh goodness. This is actually what I thought about traffic lights when I was younger!

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