44 | Psychopomp Magazine
The few who floated conspiratorial theories that the Handle was part of some government plot to poison Texans with communist spores or a bioengineered virus of the New World Order changed their tune when they saw the Handle’s honest shine. Other evangelists who shared Minister Davis’s initial distrust converted to the much more compelling gospel of cosmic harmony and its gravitational pull. The simple elegance of the Handle’s form deeply and purely calmed our souls.
We bonded together—young and old—and thought what we should do next with our gift, this Handle that allowed such miracles to sprout and blossom amid the fields we know.
Minister Davis scratched chalky equations of matter, light, and infinity on the Church walls.
We became educated by the hum of knowledge that had reached us across stars.
And what strange knowledge it was. Not just images of Kepler-186’s methane wave ice sculptures looming over mountains, but thoughts and feelings. Painfully poignant and nostalgic.
For in that Handle was a journey of generations. An ark from the distant past.
The things that had created the civilization that produced the Handle were no more.
Yet, their greatest work still contained their essence. That essence had found us.
Talk of what Jimmy had discovered eventually drew the attention of a team of astronomers not only from the McDonald Observatory, but as Jimmy had predicted, from NASA as well. Mr. Trunder’s mumbling about strangely accurate coordinates regarding the recently discovered ninth planet, a quintuplet of quasars, and the artificial satellites around Kepler-186 got some attention.