Stars In Her Eyes

Channa pulled into the parking lot of the university and tapped her fingers rythmically against the steering wheel to Good Chorlottes "we believe." She had plenty of time so she listened to Franz Ferdinand after that then got out of the car. Grabbing her things from the back seat, slammed the door and walked inside down the hall. She passed the two blondes snickering already and the class hadnt even started yet.

If Galen never saw another lawyer again, he'd be happy. After two hours in a meeting with his and his soon to be ex's lawyer, he wanted to strangle them both. Turns out that Cathy wanted more money for alimony and now wanted him to buy her a car because hers was having problems. Frustrated from the meeting, he walked slowly down the stairs to the classroom. Most of the people were there, but there were a couple missing. They probably dropped the class early.

She looked up as the teacher walked through the door. His sleeves were already rolled up and he looked tired. She tilted her head and closed her romance novel then shoved it into her purse. Crossing her legs, she looked around to see where the air heads were. Seeing they were no where close to her, she turned and settled in.

Dr Karn ran though the class in a zone, not really paying too much attention to what he was doing. It wasn't like he didn't know the material cold, it was just he had other things on his mind.

After the class cleared Channa stayed in her seat and waited until he sat down again at his desk. She left her things at her seat and walked down to the front of the class and sat in the first desk across from him, "Are you alright?" she asked quietly.

Galen looked up at the student that was supposed to go to the observatory, what was her name, Channa. "Yeah, I'm ok. Long day I guess. You ready to go to the observatory?"

"alright," she said simply. she got up and walked back to get her things.

Collecting his things, Galen looked over at Channa. "Do you know where the observatory is?"

She nodded, "yes," she spoke as she headed out the door, "I'll meet you there."

she felt strange because she had actually wanted him to confide in her for some reason but she stopped breathing, held the breath then let it out ~its none of your business~ she thought as she walked toward the exit.

The professor walked up to his office, it felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Ex-wives seemed to have that effect on men, at least from his singular experience.

"Hello," Galen said as he picked his phone that started ringing. The voice on the other end belonged to his grad student.

"Sorry Professor, but I'm not feeling well. I threw up twice this afternoon. I won't be able to make it to the observatory." Rachel Gannet was a good researcher, but a bad stomach. It wasn't the first time she had called on the count of being sick. Galen was almost ready to ask for a doctor's note.

Well, at least Channa could help with tonight's experiment. "Alright, but you get to run the results in the morning." He hung up and opened the door to his office.

As she drove toward the observatory, Channa flipped on her cellphone and dialed home, "Hey honey," she greeted her daughter.

"Mommy!

"Mommy!" the little girl called, "I was going to call you because its my bed time and Julie says I cant stay up much longer."

"Julie is right. You have sweet dreams and I will see you tomorrow?"

"Love you mommy," Aida called.

"Love you too." Channa hung up and her sad feeling was gone.

The drive to the observatory wasn't long, only about ten minutes. The Fischer Observatory was on a hill overlooking Copper Bay. It was built back in the 1920's but it's optics had been continuously updated and now it boasted a good telescope that was designed for looking at the surface of the moon in great detail. The building was made of Jacobsville sandstone, shipped at great expense from the midwest. The reddish brown stone gave the building a look that wasn't matched anywhere in the state, much less the town of Copper Bay.

Galen got out of his car and pulled out a large carrying case with his experiments and headed to the door.

Channa stood inside behind the door as she was tranfixed by everything. There were knobs on things she had never seen before. How had she expected to learn all that? She had told herself that you could teach old dogs new tricks but...her thoughts were interrupted as the door sprang opened, slamming into her back and she went flying into the ground. The air was knocked out of her as she lay there trying to learn how to breath again

"Jesus, I'm sorry Channa. I didn't see you there." Galen dropped the case and knelt down beside his student. "Are you ok?"

She heard him but he was far away. She was taking in deep breathts trying to fill her lungs as she rolled over onto her back, "not...your...fault," she got out as she took in more deep breaths, "I shouldnt have..been standing there."

"Well, either way. I'm sorry." Galen helped his student to her feet. "You sure you are ok?"

"Just got the wind knocked out of me," she lied. She could feel her ribs starting to ache already and her breasts had slammed into the ground, "I should be fine."

Channa nodded and dusted her hands against her jean clad thighs then gave him a smile, "What would you like me to do first?"

"Alright. If you're sure." Galen walked with Channa into the sample print room. "This is the print room where we get the film ready." He set his case down on the table and opened one end of it. Gently he pulled out one of two large black sheets from it that were surrounded by a metal frame. "These are the photographic plates. While there are digital cameras on the telescope, the old analog photos give us better results." Galen put the plate down on the tabletop. "Can you come over here?"

Channa walked up closer to him and stood numbly by his side, "sure whats up?"

"I'm going to pull the film out and it has to go into this other holder so it can go into the camera." Galen indicated another similar frame with black sides, but this one had a wood border. "Can you hold the frame while I slide it in?"

"Ah,"she said lifting her stiff hands from her side, "Sure," she smiled nervously.

A gasped escaped her lips as the lights flipped off, "How exactly will we see?"

"Just hold still, I'll take care of it." There was a slight scraping sound as he pulled the film out of the frame he brought from his car. Using only his hands, and a lot of experience, he found Channa's hand and then up to the edge of the frame. "My grad student, Rachel, usually helps me with this, but she's sick tonight," he said as he lined the film up and lowered it gently into the frame. "Your still breathing heavy," he commented as he flipped two small latches to hold the film in the frame.

"I-I'm fine," she muttered as his hands went up hers. She felt something shock her all the way to her core and knew her breathing was going to betray her, "Really I'm fine." she said and smiled in the darkness trying to make herself feel as positive as she sounded.

"If you insist. There, all done. Lights coming on." Galen closed his own eyes as he flipped the switch. "That wasn't so bad. I'll take that." He reached out and took the frame from her hands. They were soft he remembered, too bad his ex's wasn't that soft anymore. "Alright, lets go see Lucy."

"L-L," she started, cleared her throat then started again, "Lucy?" she asked then felt a crushing feeling in her chest. He was married and here she was getting electric because he touched her. She frowned and turned away from him and picked up he purse even though she didnt need to.

"Yeah, you'll like her. She's young too, only about 20." Channa followed behind him as the left the print room and walked down a short hall to a large black door. Above it were two pieces of glass set in the wall. They were set up to have a lightbulb light them up from the back when turned on from the other side of the door. One read 'Dome Open' and the other read 'Telescope In Use'. Galen turned the knob of the door and walked in.

The room was cavernous; the dome going up over forty feet high and at least that much wide. Along the curved wall was all sorts of electrical and mechanical equipment, from computers, to a high voltage generator. In the middle, taking up the majority of the room was a large reflecting telescope on massive gearing to manuever it. Around the telescope was a large scaffolding and steps that sat on the same revolving base as the telescope. "Say hello to Lucy."

"That's Lucy?" she asked but then quickly cleared her throat, "nice," she smiled pretending to admire the telescope. She felt like an idiot. She did everything she could to hide her face from him.

"Yeah, it was named after Lucille Ball. I don't know why though, it was before I was around here. So, want to go see her up close?" Galen was still holding the film slide and the camera was mounted on the apature on the telescope.

Channa looked up and shook her head, "I dont think so," she said, "That is high."

"Well, someone needs to spot the telescope while I dial in the coordinates of the moon. I'll go up with you so it isn't so scary." Actually, he could do it from down here, but he learned that it was better to get people up and comfortable with the machinery and the telescope.

She backed over to the wall, "No one said anything about heigths when I signed up for this course..." she knew she was being a baby but she had a bad experience with heights during her marriage and seh was not about to do it again.

"It looks high, but the scaffolding is only about ten feet off the ground." The look on her face said that the information didn't seem to convince her. "Ok, alright. I'll go up. Will you be ok here?"

She looked around her and frowned. No matter what she did she had to chose something. She bit her lower lip and remembered her promise. She was starting over, why not all the way over. She got a new set determination and started up the stairs pass him.

Galen was surprised to see her go up ahead of him. Maybe there was help for her afterall. "YOu going to be ok?"

"I'll be fine," she said clasping her hands in tight fists until her knucles changed colours, "I'll be fine." the second time she said that was more for her benifit than for him.

"Ok." Galen got to the top of the scaffolding. "You want to sit in the observation chair?" The chair was originally used when someone was looking into the main scope, but after the last remodelling it was moved to the side where it sat in front of a smaller, sighting scope. "It'll settle your nerves while I put the film in."

Channa frowned, "I'll be fine," she said irritantly, "Stop worrying about ok..." she looked at him then. His sleeves rolled up, his hair all toussled and her cheeks burnt with what she was thinking, "I'm sorry...I havent had anyone this concern for me in a long time and I kinda dont know who to react...I'm fine..really."

He didn't really expect that sort of confession from her. At that moment, she changed a little in his eyes, from just another student to someone he could interact with. Too often his students became just that... students. Channa was older than most of the students, more towards his age, but still younger. "It's ok. I guess I just... well... I'm always acting like my students are just kids." Turning away before he said too much, Galen slid the film into the large camera that was at the end of the telescope.

Channa felt horrible. She reached a hand out for him but stopped herself and turned away. She then walked over to the chair and sat down with her hands in her lap as though though that would make him feel better if she did as he had suggested. She didnt know what came over her though. She was feeling funny plus her ribs hurt.

The film was set so Galen went over and kneeled next to Channa. "I can give you the moon." Reaching over, he hit a couple switches, the Dome above them started opening slowly, opening a narrow slit in the ceiling. As it opened, the full moon was visible coming up just over the horizon.

Channa stared at him as he reached over to hit the buttons and his words sent her heart racing. Even though she told herself he was only talking about the class and materials for the course she still felt as though he meant it to her. She was still watching him when he turned to face her.

Galen smiled and touched the optical sight on the sight telescope. "Now, I'm going to go down on you in a minute. I want you to look though this eyepiece as the telescope moves. You'll be able to see a real close look at the moon. I have to start the tracking program over by the door. I'll be right over there if you need me. Ok?"

She gasped at that but nodded. She knew he didnt mean go down as in 'go down' but it still caused her to rub her thighs together and wish he..." ok," she said simply.

Grasping her arm for moral support, Galen got up and walked down the scaffolding. The tracking computer was near the door, and as he looked up to the telescope, he could see that Channa had a very nice profile sitting on the laid back chair. "Ready?"

To be continued