were asleep so he tiptoed past their bedroom to the stairs He was heading down when an old man’s voice stopped him in his tracks Where ya headed whippersnapper Grandpa Henry whispered Michael jumped He was surprised that Grandpa was awake this late I’m working on a project Grandpa Michael explained He showed him the pieces of the telescope Hmmm Grandpa Henry was eighty years old with wild gray hair and a lot of wrinkles He was Michael’s dad’s dad and everyone who lived on Shaker Street called him Grandpa When Grandpa retired he gave his old toolshed in the backyard to Michael Now it was a clubhouse where Michael and his two best friends could create new things They called it the Maker Shack Want some help Grandpa Henry asked Michael knew that Grandpa could fix up the telescope in minutes Truthfully he’d probably make it even better But that wasn’t what Michael wanted He was determined to solve this on his own I’ll figure it out Michael told him You’re just like me when I was your age Grandpa said with a chuckle Well whippersnapper come on upstairs I’ll give you a quiet place to think Grandpa pointed to the narrow steps at the end of the hallway At the top of Michael’s purple-painted Victorian house was a tower room with windows facing every direction Grandpa Henry lived in that tower Come along Grandpa said I’ll share my snack He was carrying a small plate piled with cookies Clearly he’d been sneaking back from the kitchen when he’d found Michael Yum Michael said Thanks He followed Grandpa up the stairs They sat in two super comfy overstuffed chairs that faced a big window Grandpa
Henry had his own telescope and Michael stared at it while they ate the cookies The telescope was big and Grandpa had made it himself It was called a Galileo telescope He’d used two lenses One was concave That meant it was thinner at the center of the circular glass disc The other was convex The convex lens was thicker in the center and thinner at the edges The two lenses were placed at opposite ends of a white plastic pipe It was a great telescope Grandpa could see the stars clearly Plus he could see everything from their house all the way to Liv’s house at the bottom of Shaker Street Michael wasn’t trying to make such a fancy telescope Liv’s birthday was coming up and he wanted to make her a present She loved looking at the stars Actually she liked to search the sky for alien life and UFOs But since those didn’t exist Michael thought a telescope to look at stars would be the next best thing His little telescope wouldn’t see much further than the moon but it would be cool and he knew she’d love it Michael was staring at Grandpa’s telescope when he realized that his grandfather had fallen asleep in his chair His loud snore rattled through the room Smiling Michael got up He moved to a small empty table and set down the supplies for Liv’s present Looking at Grandpa’s telescope he realized that the problem with Liv’s was that there was no way to focus the lenses His weren’t fancy concave and convex lenses Instead Michael had taken the simple lenses out of the two magnifying glasses They looked like two clear glass discs Using tape he’d secured one lens on one side of a cardboard tube and another lens on the other side With another long look at Grandpa Henry’s amazing scope he saw that there was a
part that twisted allowing the lenses to get closer together or further apart That was how you focused the telescope That’s it Michael thought I need a way to move the lenses He had an idea He went to Grandpa Henry’s bathroom and found an empty toilet paper tube Using scissors Michael cut the tube so it would fit inside the large cardboard tube he already had He slid the small tube into the bigger one Then he taped one of the magnifying lenses to the end of that smaller tube He taped the other lens to the end of the big tube Now the little tube could twist and move in and out I think I fixed it Michael said He took the telescope to the window that looked over Shaker Street and pointed it toward the sky Looking through the end with the smaller tube he could now slide the tube and move the image around until things came clear He saw the moon He checked out a couple bright stars Then he pointed the telescope down toward Shaker Street What’s that he muttered to himself Michael twisted the lens around to get a clearer view There was a woman walking quickly in the light of the streetlamps She was wearing a long dark coat and dark hat If Michael wasn’t using the telescope he’d never have seen her He adjusted the telescope again focusing on her arms She was carrying a rolled-up piece of paper like a map or poster and a shovel
Strange Michael muttered to himself He saw the woman look around as if checking to make sure she wasn’t being followed After that Michael saw her jump a fence into a neighbor’s yard A few minutes later the figure came back She appeared to be shaking her head sadly Michael stared out a few minutes more until the woman disappeared behind a large leafy tree near the house where Leo and his dad lived Michael set down the telescope Strange things are happening on Shaker Street he said to himself
