Shake Down the Stars Read Online Free PDF

Ganymede, and Io. It’s a perfect night for Jupiter.
    When I was young, I was called more than a few names for my obsession with astronomy, but I never cared. Looking at the stars has always been one of the few things in life that’s given me a sense of calm. Mr. Hoffman, a man Mom dated for nearly three years, introduced me to astronomy. He taught science at an all-boys Catholic prep school in Manhattan and would dress fastidiously each morning in a suit and tie. It was weeks before I realized he was a teacher and not a banker or office employee.
    He lived in a two-bedroom house one block from our apartment building, and while Mom worked her night job waitressing, Mr. Hoffman would babysit. He loved Mom with the kind of love that’s painful to watch, even for a nine-year-old girl, but when I asked her one night when she was going to marry him, she laughed like I hadn’t seen her laugh in months. “Now where did you go get that idea from? Me and David? Marriage? Child, you have gone and lost your natural-born mind.” She’d just come home from her job at the department store. When I pressed her on the matter she said, “He’s a nice man, Piper, I’ll give you that, but nice doesn’t pay the bills. I’m looking for someone who can help us out of this shitty situation we’re in, and marrying a Jew who doesn’t make good money makes no sense.” She laughed again and flipped off her shoes as she headed toward her bath.
    But she continued to see Mr. Hoffman just the same. We spent most nights at his house, in fact. He’d have dinner waiting for her when she came home from work; he’d massage her feet while we watched TV, and he’d take her out whenever he could, usually dinner and a movie.
    On the nights when Mom worked late, Mr. Hoffman would heat up TV dinners, and we’d watch our favorite sitcoms, followed by tapings of
Cosmos
or
Nova.
Mr. Hoffman always talked excitedly about space; he’d give me books on the solar system and astronomy and would tell me about the laws of planetary motion and measuring space through light. He’d often take out his telescope, too, a Meade TX with auto star, and we’d go into his backyard and spend hours stargazing. He’d often say he’d love for me to grow up to become an astronomer or astronaut, as easy as Mom would say she’d love for me to grow up and find a job in a nice office that paid good benefits.
    When Mom started cheating on him, we both pretended nothing was going on. But I’d already met the other guy, Uncle Gerald, and when she’d call late and say she’d have to work, I knew she was lying. Eventually, while we watched TV one night, Mr. Hoffman admitted he knew what she was up to—“She’s with the other guy, isn’t she?”
    I was devastated when they broke up. Not only was she dumping Mr. Hoffman, but we were moving to Maryland to live with her sister—our eighth move since my birth. On the day we were set to leave, I imagined things would play out as dramatically as they did on TV. I envisioned two different scenarios while Mom and I loaded the U-Haul. In scenario one, I waited patiently for Mr. Hoffman to show up, teary-eyed and begging us to stay. I imagined Mom recognizing how much she loved him and announcing that we would always be together. To celebrate, he’d give me his old telescope after buying a new one for himself.
Here, Piper, I want you to have this. I love you as much as if you were my very own.
In the second scenario, the sadder of the two, Mom would tell him we were moving no matter what, at which point he’d get his telescope from his car and hand it over to me.
Here, Piper, I want you to have this. I’ll miss you.
    But Mr. Hoffman never showed up that day, and Mom and I loaded the U-Haul and started the drive to Maryland without a good-bye or a telescope. I wrote Mr. Hoffman within a week of our arrival. The gist of