The device

Sitting on the back of a park bench, with a habitual movement Chris Porter opened the second can of beer. Chris was on holiday and there was nobody else in that park but him and an old cat resting on the edge of the bench. He waited - his advance from the plant was due today, which meant that after four in the evening there would be a full house in the “Ruby” bar, and around seven, teenagers of all shades would gather at the local pizza place and sushi bar. For now, there was absolutely nothing to do. Chris crushed the empty can and threw it past the trash bin. While he was watching it fly, he suddenly noticed an unknown object on the footpath.
It looked like a lorgnette put together the only difference being the ultramodern design. The metal handle with black rubber mountings rested comfortably in his hand, and Chris pressed a button. The lorgnette immediately unfolded.
White letters ran on the tinted glasses in a thin metal mounting. Chris realized that Windows would now start. However, nothing of the sort happened, the display glasses flashed, filling up with black and white static and went dark.
"The device must be defective and they threw it away,” Chris thought to himself and brought the lorgnette close to his eyes. You could wear it just like sunglasses, and through the dark lenses, Chris watched the cat settle comfortably on the bench and start licking itself at the tail, just like all felines do. Oddly enough, when he glanced at the cat over the lorgnette, he saw that the cat was sitting in the same pose, simply wasn’t napping anymore and was looking at him cautiously.
Chris didn’t know what to think because every time he looked at the cat through the lorgnette it was licking itself. As soon as he lowered the lorgnette, he saw an entirely different sight: the cat sitting as sound as a bell and staring mockingly. In utter shock, Chris kept looking at it through the lorgnette and then without it.
A characteristic loud rasp interrupted his thoughts: someone was quickly rolling down the path on damaged skates. Chris glanced back and saw a girl. She was about thirteen years old. Chris could see that she felt shaky about roller skates but, nevertheless, did build up a significant speed, making a horrid noise and fiercely swinging her arms.
Turning a cold shoulder on him, the girl plonked herself down on the bench next to him, spread out her legs with scratched knees and started sniveling trying to gain her breath. Chris pointed the lorgnette at her at once. He was surprised because instead of a snotty girl he saw a tall, well-set-up, nice young lady in an old fashioned dress with a stylish hat and in white gloves. In one hand, she held an open pocket book and in the other – a small parasol. Once again, Chris put down the lorgnette and watched that romantic young woman turn into a freckled girl who, after catching her breath and wiping her nose on her hand, was now ransacking her backpack. She took a big, fat book out of it, slammed it open somewhere in the middle and started reading. At last, Christopher began to dimly understand how the device worked.
Apparently, the device was working just fine. Moreover, it could recognize a person’s true self and showed it to the user/holder in a sequence of images. It was amazing. However, the theory still needed checking, so he went to search for more subjects. He found new candidates for his experiment at the far end of the park. A black Mercedes stopped behind the fence. Two people came out. The man was a surprisingly complete generalized character of a “new Russian”. Heavy and thuggish, hair combed back, broad forehead, and no neck. All smaller attributes of the look like golden rings on thick fingers, a black man bag, etc. were present in full. And, of course, he spoke on the cell phone. His companion was a tall young woman that looked like a fashion model. However, something about her face prevented Chris from calling her attractive.
"I wonder, could this device process the information on two people?” he thought and held the lorgnette to his eyes. What he saw was really funny. A flap-eared boy that couldn’t be more than five stood in front of him. A black toy car with the familiar Mercedes sign on the hood was attached to a rope that he had in his hand.
The boy was clearly upset, he was minding his step and could barely hold back his tears. No surprise there because a big strong woman was hanging over him with her hands on her full hips and explaining something to him in an angry voice. The boy’s ears were bright red…
Christopher was walking down the path accelerating his pace at every step. A thought that had crossed his mind was pushing him towards home. On his way, he met a curious couple – a very displeased boy was accompanying a shagged old man in an electric wheelchair. Unlike his companion, the old man looked fresh and cheerful and was exploring the possibilities of his new wheelchair with evident delight. The chair moved down the path in zigzags, and Chris could see the desire to “rev it up” in the eyes of the old man.
The teenager sighed and rolled his eyes upwards. When Chris aimed the lorgnette at them, the characters reversed roles – the cheerless boy became an old man, and the old man, on the contrary, transformed into a chipper pioneer.
Meanwhile, the weather was getting worse. Suddenly, it got dark, a wind rose, and when Chris approached his house, the first drops of rain fell on the ground. Before the elevator came, he ran up the stairs to the fourth floor, opened the apartment and finally, approached his goal – the mirror! Now he only had to do what he had intended. With hesitation, he brought the device to his eyes. In the light of the first streaks of lightning, he saw a most surprising picture – there was nothing in the mirror besides the poor interior of the room…