Looking at the stars

Little Willie Bjornstad was neither of those things.  He wasn't little and he was not Swedish, but he was Willie and he loved to study the stars.  This interest of his was such a passion that his father purchased a powerful, high end telescope for him for his birthday.  Willie was ecstatic.

It followed, as was expected, that Willie spent every extra moment at his bedroom window, his eye to his telescope.  Finally, the big moment arrived, the time when all of his hard work would pay off.  MIT was having an astronomy test/contest.  The winner would receive a full ride scholarship for a four-year degree.  Of course, Willie jumped at the chance.

One week after the contest, Willie received the results in the mail.  The tension could be cut with a knife.  Willie's parents, family and friends all gathered around.  Willie opened the envelope, then sat down the envelope and walked away, without a word.  Confused, his father picked up the envelope, considered the letter, and then spoke.  "There must be a mistake," he said, with concern in his voice.  "It says here that Willie scored a 12% on the test.  I don't understand."  Willie returned to the confused fray with a Pepsi in hand.  "It doesn't make sense, Dad," he said.  "Nothing on the test was even remotely familiar.  It all seemed completely foreign."  "Is something wrong with your telescope?"  Willie's father asked.  "No, it works perfectly fine, as far as I can tell," Willie answered with some trepidation.  "I wasn't going to say anything, but the telescope doesn't seem to do much."  "That's even more troubling, son," he replied.  "I paid a lot of money for that telescope.  You should have said something long ago.  Let's go take a look at it."  So the two of them tromped upstairs and entered the boys’ room.  Bending over slightly, Willie's father put his eye to the eyepiece.  He pulled back quickly and reached up to remove the lens cover.  "Wait!" Willie shouted, "don't do that!"  Confused, Willie's father asked why.  "Because having that cover off just confuses things.  With the cover on, I can think about what the stars and planets are really like.  Seeing them is deceptive."
That evening, Willie's father listed the telescope on eBay and signed up for Netflix. 

Something things are too far-gone to bother with.

If you scream in the woods...

The thought that had been plaguing him for the last twenty minutes was now firmly set in his mind.  He was lost.  Arturo had set his first step on this trail at approximately 8:45 am that morning. It was now 3:52 pm and his location, exact, approximate or otherwise, eluded him. 
Arturo had been born and raised in Mexico City.  Born into wealth, he had never known an uncomfortable day in his life.  Having graduated from high school only three weeks ago, Arturo concocted the idea of getting out and seeing some other parts of the world before heading off to college. So two and one half weeks of research led him to the Redwood forest of northern California.  

Arturo studied the trees around him.  He studied the forest floor.  He looked to the sun for direction.  But all was for naught.  He was irretrievably lost.  He could stand still or he could keep moving.  As he was getting cold, he decided to keep moving.  He found a bush with berries and thinking back to his studies, he determined that they were safe to eat.  Half an hour later and three stops over a log with a handful leaves forced him to admit his culinary error.  Pulling up his trousers for a fourth time, Arturo found himself face to face with a very large bear.  Arturo began to think through the various kinds of bears he had studied, but then though better of it.  This one was carrying a fork and Arturo surmised it was probably looking for a meal.  Turning to run, he tripped.

A week later, when the ranger found what remained off Arturo, he wondered why a fork was lying on the ground with him.