• When we reached the big tree grandpa put down the blanket he had brought with him. He laid it out on the smoothest part of the ground he could find. It wasn't right next to the trunk of the tree because there were too many branches covering the sky from there. He put it almost out to the edge and said that from there we would be able to lay down and look up at the stars. We laid down on our backs and grandpa said "can you hear them?" I said "can I hear what, grandpa?" He said "the stars, can you hear them?" I had never heard of such a thing. How could you hear stars? They were just little lights in the sky and as far as I could tell they were so far away you could just barely see them, and if they made any noise at all you certainly wouldn't be able to hear them. When I told grandpa that I couldn't hear anything he said "you're right, you can't hear them now, but there was a time that you could and that's another part of my story.“
