I was sitting at that long table with the white tablecloth when the waiter brought out the box. Sarah had just finished her speech. Everyone was clapping and I was still trying to take in what she said about the person who got her started.

She was nine when she asked Santa for a telescope. We lived on the farm back then and money was tight after the crop failed. The truck needed a new transmission too. I drove into town in October and bought the thing anyway. It was only eighty-nine dollars but I hid it in the barn behind the old feed sacks because I wanted to surprise her.

December twenty-second the electric bill came and it was higher than usual. I stood in the kitchen looking at the shutoff notice and then I got in the truck again. The store manager gave me a funny look when I set the box on the counter but he took it back without asking questions. I used the money to keep the lights on.

Christmas morning Sarah came downstairs in her pajamas and looked under the tree. There was nothing there for her except a pair of socks and some candy. I told her Santa must have made a mistake this year. She just nodded and said okay. She never asked for anything like that again.

The next few years she started checking out astronomy books from the library. I would find them on the kitchen table with little notes in the margins. She never said a word about that Christmas. I figured she had forgotten or maybe she just moved on to other things.

When she got to high school she joined the science club. One night she came home excited because they had a small telescope set up in the parking lot.

She stayed out until after midnight looking at the stars. I watched her from the porch and wondered if I should say something but I never did.

She went to college and studied astronomy. Every time she called home she talked about classes and papers and later about her own students. I went to her graduation and took pictures but I never brought up the telescope. It felt like too much time had passed.

Last Saturday was her retirement dinner at the university. She had been teaching there for twenty years. The room was full of her colleagues and some of her old students. I sat near the front and listened while she talked about the people who helped her along the way.

She mentioned her high school science teacher and then she paused. She said there was one person who planted the idea in the first place even if they never knew it. I thought she meant one of her professors. Then the side door opened and a young man carried out a cardboard box.