• “Hey Lindsey Loo-Hoo,” said Papa smiling. He had invented this pet name for me ever since the showing of “How a Grinch Stole Christmas”, and if the syllables fit, Papa will use it. A smile pierced my bored expression and I was immediately interested in what Papa was going to say next. “Would you like to go for a walk?” He questioned, moving one-eyebrow slightly higher than the other. He wore a brown jacket and jeans. A red flannel shirt was visible from the collar. Glasses, and a pack of cigarettes, were his only accessories.
    “Yes!” I replied enthusiastically, hopping up off the dark blue couch.

    “If you’re taking her for a walk make sure she wears a jacket.” Grandma said loudly from the office. She took no consideration to my two year old brother asleep in the room beside her. Evan was exhausted from playing in a toy playschool car and had retreated to his bedroom for a nap.

    “Get your jacket,” Papa winked. I ran off to the coat closet in the kitchen skipping by Corkey, my grandparents’ cocker spaniel, who was sniffing around the refrigerator. It took quick reflexes to ovoid him when everything in the house was in shades of brown. The tile floor was a light brown along with Corkey’s coat, the walls a dark wood brown, and it opened to the living room with a dark sand color brown carpet and dark wood paneling for the walls. I quickly grabbed my dark purple coat and ran back to Papa, petting Corkey’s head on the way. I ran to the door leading to the porch slipping my muddy tennis shoes over my feet at the step. “Ready!” I said to Papa. He was standing on the porch looking at the landscape having another smoke as he waited.

    I was immediately greeted with the moist humid air that adorns all woods. The musky, smoky, smell of my Papa wafted toward me as I left the house to walk with him. It felt good in the early evening. Already, some of the first stars protruded the soft light left over by sunset. “Where are we walking Papa?” I asked through the creeks and moans of the twelve steps we walked over, leading to the lawn.

    At the foot of the steps he pointed, “Down near the wood line.” We continued walking down the long backyard, dodging trees periodically that had separated from the dense wood we aimed for. The lawn was short with a little moss and crab grass. Papa kept it cut well, but it was hard to get it perfect when there was so much.

    “Why?” I asked as we came near the shed. It was to the right of us surrounded by firewood and a lonely broken lawn mower, a result of Papa’s resilient yard work.

    Papa replied, “You’ll see. It’s a beautiful night tonight.”

    “Are we going to the telescope?” I asked excitedly, skipping a little. “I love the telescope!”

    “Hehehe,” Papa chuckled, “We are going that way yes. You’ll see, you’ll see.” He was smiling, eyes twinkling. A little blush was visible on his cleanly shaven face.

    “Okaaay,” I stopped skipping and paced along-side Papa taking two steps for each of his. “It is a pretty night,” I said looking up as I walked, more stars had appeared. Papa smiled but kept his eyes on the tree line. The black dot was becoming a more prominent shape. We continued walking listening to the sounds of nature, and our footsteps. The deep huff of Papa’s foot and my quiet tapping were muffled by the grass. We had long past the shed, and now I looked right to see the neighbors’ garden. I always loved the vegetable garden. It was about ten feet by fifteen large with pumpkins, tomatoes, beans, some corn, and a few sunflowers, in neat rows. Oh the sunflowers were wonderful! They would tower over the garden in the summer, almost twice my size, and when they got too old the neighbors would pick them and dry them out. The blossom was bigger than my face. It wasn’t time to grow the flowers yet, so I moved my eyes to the telescope I could now see clearly.

    “There’s the telescope!” I said cheerfully. It towered over me at four feet tall. It had a huge tripod, and sat on a circular cement platform. It was too heavy to sit on the grass for a long period of time. The weight and complexity of the telescope caused any thought of moving it to be immediately disregarded. I stared in awe at the mysterious object.

    “Yep,” Papa said, placing his hands on my shoulders, “would you like to look though it?” he asked although already knowing the answer. He watched me quickly step unto the platform, stand on my tip toes, and place my right eye to the scope. Papa stood beside me and began explaining the telescope, “For a telescope like this you have different lenses. Each lens shows you a different object in space. What do you see now?”

    “Hmm…” I pondered moving the telescope a little to the left. “Oh! I see a planet!”

    “Very good!” said Papa. “What planet do you think that is?”

    “Uh…” here Papa had me stumped. I responded tentatively, “Ohm…Saturn?”

    “No, close though. Saturn is the planet with rings. What do else do you see?”

    “Whoa!” I exclaimed looking at the planet. I was amazed by its size, and the moons that revolved around it. I wondered how the planet could hover there. “How does this work?” I asked, referring to the telescope. Papa sat down on the grass, and slowly responded.

    “Well, it’s hard to explain,” he said looking up at the sky.

    “Oh.” I said disappointed removing my eye from the scope. I reluctantly left the telescope to sit beside him on the soft grass. “Can you try?”

    Papa put his arm around me as he said, “I tell you what. When you’re older I will tell you about the telescope. I will show you the planets, and the stars, and the galaxies. Do you know what the name of our galaxy is?” He questioned.

    “The Milky Way!” I laughed, “Like the candy bar.”

    He smiled, “Yes, and do you know why?” my puzzled expression led to his explanation, “if you look there,” he pointed, “you can see a group of stars. If you connect the stars, they make a picture of a pan that is pouring milk.” He traced the image as he spoke.

    “It’s like connect the dots!” I exclaimed, looking at where Papa had pointed. I looked for a long time, but could not see the picture. “I don’t see it,” I said, squinting my eyes incase that was the problem.

    “One day you will. The stars have all kinds of pictures, and things you don’t know yet. But when you’re older, I will teach you,” He moved his free arm in a gesture of showing me the sky, “I will teach you all about space.”

    “Yay!” I smiled. “Planets and stars are so cool! I want to be just as smart as you when I grow up Papa.”

    He smiled and kissed my forehead, “Let’s hope you don’t grow up too fast,” he said. A shift of wind ruffled his jacket and whistled through the trees which surrounded us. I leaned into his jacked shivering a little. “It is getting cold,” Papa smiled holding me, “are you hungry?”

    “A little,” I said.

    “Let’s go get some dinner then!” Papa said while picking me up. He kissed me again, on the cheek this time, and began the walk back home.

    “Hahaha!” I laughed. Another gust of wind blew by and I snuggled into his neck. “I Love you Papa.” I said as I closed my eyes against the cold wind.

    “I Love you too Lindsey,” he whispered. I listened to the pulse of his foot-steps and his steady breathing. I felt the gradual incline as we walked up the hill to his house passing the garden and the shed, but my eyes were closed so I didn’t see it. I heard a squirrel shuffling around in the branches of a tree probably escaping to his own nest for the night, and sooner than I expected, I heard the creak of stairs. One…two…three…four, I counted in my head like I always did, five…six…, then the creeks stopped. I must have missed some. I heard the suction of a door being opened and suddenly the smell of lasagna and the feel of heat encompassed my body. “She’s asleep,” Papa said.

    “Aw. Isn’t she hungry?” Papa didn’t say anything, but I could feel him shake his head no. He never wanted to worry grandma. “Take her to the bed then. Good night Lindsey,” she said kissing me on the forehead.” Next, I was drifting between stars and planets, and lasagna and Papa. The stars and planets won.