What's the Fabric of space made out of?

When we look at a distant object are we seeing it as it was in the past?

geometry is not a property of space, so your answer to my question is wrong.

I know this is not in the complete context of the present direction in this thread but concerning space I was wondering if you might apply some reasoning to the following thought experiment.A train is travelling down the tracks beside a railway crossing moving at a constant speed.A man aboard the train drops a steel ball from the window of this passing train and from his vantage point on the train the ball{ignoring air resistence to understand the forces involved} appears to fall in a straight line through space to the ground moving past his train.
At the same moment a man on the side of the tracks looks up to see the misdeed.He watches the ball fall arcing to the ground as a result of the combination of the forward movement of the train and the pull of gravity set it in a parabloic curve.Which is the correct path in space,the straight line or the parabola?

Of course, the parabola is the correct path

the drop of the ball following the direction of that movement is viewed relative to the movement of the viewer, whereas to the bystander, the drop is viewed relative to the earth on which he stands

As I think about it, it would seem that the dropper looking back would view a slower velocity of drop,

and that if the bystander and the moving (moving edited in) dropper both had stop watches, the time would be equal from drop to contact.

Apologies folks; most of you are trying to help buz with a simple Newtonian analysis