Touching the stars (Flash Fiction)

It was an enormous day. For the first time a blind person would see the stars, or rather he would feel them.

The blind man, Louis Mitchener who had been sent over by the Helen Keller institute to test the new machine in front of an international press gathering, placed his hands into the contraption that Dr. Kustler had invented; the Tactiloscope which, in layman’s terms, was a kind of camera that converted all visual images into solid 3-D objects.

“You could say that it’s a camera that makes sculptures instead of photographs”, Kustler explained to the crowd of journalists and snapping photographers, “And with it blind people will be, for the first time, able to touch the things that we sighted people only see from a distance”.

But, just then, Mitchener let out a gasp.

“What is it?”, asked Kustler, “What’s wrong?”.

“The stars”, replied the blind man, laughing, “They’re braille”.

“What?”, asked Kustler, thinking perhaps he had misheard.

“Braille”, repeated Mitchener, “A message…from God”.