He did not look at me or answer but hunched to his work at the scope, at arranging the site just so, re-adjusting the tripod. I know what he is thinking, that anyone who would give credence to an astronomy book by the guy who wrote about Curious George can not know what she is talking about, the skepticism on his face when I showed him the star charts, the brilliant way H.A. Rey drew his lines to delineate the beings and creatures described by the constellation's names. I showed him the herdsman with his pipe, Orion and his belt, club, and shield (got a good reaction from that one), the twins.
Too many trees was the pronouncement, we'll need to move to a better location, as if of course, it is all about his nightly quest, the look of resignation when I reminded him we had planned to read another chapter about Hector the humblebug. While I frittered the final moments of my evening on email he designed the simple cone he plans to invent to send up to space on a saddle-light which will capture the sunlight better than those flat rectangular solar panels, which have to be hooked into the power grid but that is expensive and slow, and his sun cone will have mirrors inside which will intensify the light and because it is in space can capture the sun all the time, or whichever sun it is aimed at. But it all depends on the light years, evidently, or so I was told, in the loud firm voice of the all-knowing.
And just where was Galileo's mother when all that talk of heresy and Rome coming down and his books burned and thus illuminating the night sky, albeit not his fellow man's minds? why, she was probably folding his socks, planning his lunch for the next day, tidying up the wet towels from the bath. Did she get up at night when the tossing was too much, the blind moon slanting its full gibbous self in a whiteout obscuring the stars, the sky, the heavens, the new loves of her son? Did she cry and wail and plead against being forsaken and lost to a sun, a star, to Io? Even Draco Malfoy's mother Narcissa whimpered but he is just a boy. I picture this: Now Galilieo, settle down. Find a good job, you are smart, so smart, but stars! and planets!
The diagram of the sun cone includes a marketplace of gem colored fruits and vegetables, isn't it cute? he asks me, they will need a place to shop! They, the Geonosians, will be there evidently, no longer turning out battle droids for George Lucas but on to more generous, universe-worthy pursuits: solar power harvesting. Go my little Galileo, go! we need your brilliant, peaceful, beautiful mind.
