I squatted down to pick up the TV—it was heavier than I anticipated—and set it on the counter, plugging it in. The screen fuzzed to life with a loud staticky noise. I popped in the first tape. The screen went blue, then the logo for the Lifelong Learning Company faded in, followed by an introduction about the class and the professor, Dr. Russell Harper West. Finally, there he was: Grandpa. Smiling his goofy smile.

“Welcome to Understanding Astronomy,” he said.

It was startling to hear his voice out loud. He sounded and looked younger on the video than when I had known him. I picked up the box and looked for a date: 1993. I hadn’t even been born yet.

“If you’ve never taken an introduction to astronomy class,” Grandpa said, “some of the phenomena in our universe may seem mysterious and inexplicable, but soon you’ll learn the answers to some of your most basic questions. Why do rainbows look the way they do? Why does the sunrise or sunset turn the sky red? The answers to these questions are actually easily understandable, and I hope they will serve as an appetizer—as an inspiration to you—to seek out even more knowledge.”

I pulled the stool across the dusty floor so I could sit in front of the TV. At first it was surreal to see Grandpa there in living motion, but after a while the strangeness wore off, and Grandpa ceased to be my grandfather and became Dr. Russell West, professor of astronomy. I had never thought of him as his own person before, separate from his role as my grandfather. I kept watching all the way through the first lecture, and let the tape roll on to the second.

—

I could have brought the TV into the house, but I liked being out in the studio. It just needed a little sprucing up. I found some cleaning supplies in the basement and swept the floor and wiped all the dusty surfaces, even polishing the chrome on the sink. I found a camping chair down there, too, and brought it out to the studio so I wouldn’t have to perch on the stool. There was an overturned bucket that I used as an end table for my glass of iced tea, and a plastic crate that I used as a footrest. I didn’t forget about the files Joan had asked me to sort. I laid them out on the worktable and did them a folder or two at a time, while I took breaks between lectures.