Read Online A Vomit of Diamonds by Boripat Lebel - Free Book Online

swear, you could fry an egg on my
face!”
    “When did you move to Australia,
Minho?” Annika asked her new Korean friend. “At the beginning of
Year Eleven,” the other replied curtly, though well-meaning. “And
is your family still in Korea?” Maxine asked, all curiousness and
gossip once more. “Yeah,” he confirmed, “I stayed at a boarding
school in Brisbane.”
    It was one o’clock by the
time the soirée broke up. Though whispered tête-à-têtes continued
behind closed doors well past two. “Perry,” Balzac called from the
other bed. The house was heated, comfortable and dark. “Yeah?” came
the reply. “Can you tell me about gravitational lensing?” Balzac
asked; it was terminology he had caught Karl, or was it Eric using.
“Now?” Perry returned, his usual calm broken by a hint of
incredulity. “Are you busy?” retorted the other. “All right,” said
Perry with an acquiescent sigh. “In simple English!” Balzac
reminded, imparted in the manner a child might adopt when dictating
the story arc of his father’s bedtime narrative. “Basically,” said
the gentle man; “ strong gravitational
fields cause light to bend around massive objects like galaxies,
which means that astronomers can study objects that are behind them
simply by looking at their halos around it.”

     

XIX
     
    Not surprisingly everyone woke up late
that same morning; luckily, their program did not start till later
during the day. Sarah came by the guest house at half-past eleven.
“Tired?” she asked, grinning knowingly at the party assembled in
the living room; decidedly hung-over. “Today we’ll break up into
groups again,” she continued, herself alert and ready for action;
“We’ll walk around the campus in the afternoon so you get a feel of
the place, and then tonight visit another two telescopes. But
first, I’ll take you guys for,” and she consulted her watch, “lunch
I guess.” So saying she led them once again to the
refectory.
    As was planned, they spent the
afternoon touring the grounds like school children at a museum;
their teacher acquainting them with the exhibit’s history and
purpose. None of the buildings were entered though as they were
locked from the outside; its rulers leading vampiric lifestyles and
only returning to their haunts come twilight. “It’s less creepy
during the day,” Annika observed, as they walked up to the house
with the dome on its roof. “Karl’s place,” it was now referred to;
coined by witty Maxine no doubt.
    Towards the end of their excursion, as
if turning a bend in the river and coming face to face where the
water falls — gasp, they came upon an enormous satellite dish
perched atop a windmill-like tower. The locals called this radio
telescope “The Dish”; naturally. It was a reasonably large
structure, though shorter than The Dome. Apparently famous too;
having made an appearance in the movie “The Dish”.
    Sarah pressed the buzzer next to the
door; The Dish was the only structure at Coonabara Observatory to
operate during the day. “Let’s see if we can get a tour inside,”
she said with a serious smile, adding in a conspiratorial tone:
“Don’t tell the other group.” A dozen or so seconds later they were
welcomed in by a happy man who went by the name of
Andrew.
    “I was a consultant for the movie,”
Andrew affirmed, as proud as a patriot. “Cool!” said Maxine; the
others nodded in agreement. “Though many of the scenes were filmed
on sets,” Andrew conceded, “a few important ones were shot here.”
So saying he took them through these sacred locations. “In all of
the scenes were you see the dish turn,” said he, walking, pointing,
and narrating like a tour guide in Beverly Hills; “That was me in
the control room inputting the commands!”
    The control room did not reflect its
half a century age; redone, decidedly, to resemble a bridge on some
research vessel. “The dish has to be monitored constantly,” their
guide