Star Dust Read Online Free PDF Page B

if shelves were a major technological breakthrough.
    “And the backyard is huge!” Lisa had added.
    Think of the children , everyone had said. Almost all Anne-Marie did was think of the children. The children were why she’d thrown Doug out and why she’d refused to take him back.
    The children are fine , she’d insisted—all while suspecting they weren’t.
    Seeing them trying so hard to please her, she knew that they’d understood the depth of her unhappiness, no matter how hard she’d tried to hide it. She owed it to them to be happy, not merely to act like she was.
    Maybe it would be better when they started school? Except then she’d be starting work. Her at work—ha! The thought was strange and freeing and itchy all at once. When her dad’s friend Mr. Chambers had offered her a place in his travel agency, it had seemed silly to refuse. What else was she going to do? And while there was money from Doug and her parents, she wanted to be independent.
    She’d even let the kids eat dinner while watching television tonight. She’d hoped it would feel daring—everyone with a tray, in front of Red Skelton. Who needed that too-heavy formal dining room?
    Instead, it had felt like they were each eating on their own. Like they weren’t a family.
    She set a cigarette between her lips and fumbled with her lighter. She flicked it three times but no flame emerged.
    “Need some help?”
    She looked toward the shout. Across the darkness, sitting on his back patio, she could make out the outline of Kit Campbell. He’d been watching her for who knew how long. Of course.
    She sighed and walked over to him. “Um, sure. If you don’t have company.”
    “I’m alone.” The intimacy of the words pricked her skin.
    He stood and fished a lighter out of his pocket. She stepped closer, trying not to think about the lack of space between them. The lighter crackled to life and she leaned into its glow. When her cigarette was lit, she looked up at him and inhaled sharply. His eyes were intent on her, searching for… something.
    Before she could decide how to respond, the lighter snapped shut and they were plunged into darkness. She exhaled and could hear him shuffle away and then sit.
    “There’re some more chairs if you want to stay.”
    She didn’t. But she also didn’t want to go back to her house, back to the laundry and the quiet. So she fumbled until she found a chair as far from his as she could get.
    “How’s your finger?” he asked.
    She flexed it. “Better, thank you. I’m done with your pocketknife and scissors. I’ll bring them back soon.”
    He didn’t answer, and so she looked up into sky. The moon was bright, floating in a great spill of stars. More almost than she remembered seeing. In her old Dallas neighborhood, there was too much light to make much out up there. She glanced across the patio at Kit Campbell, astronaut, but he was little more than a silhouette in the darkness.
    “Do you often sit in the gloom?” she asked after a bit.
    “There’s a light”—she could hear him gesture—“but I didn’t want to bother anyone.”
    She laughed. “You didn’t have any neighbors until two days ago. Who would there be to bother? Or is it that you like the night sky?”
    His chair creaked uncomfortably. Oh. She’d figured it out.
    Without drawing attention to his non-answer, she craned back. There were so many stars. “What’s up there tonight?”
    “Let’s see… I’d guess you know Orion. But over there, to the right of it, is Taurus. The bull.”
    All she could see were a million points of light. They were pretty, sure, but she didn’t know what made any one special. “Over where? What am I looking for?”
    “Follow Orion’s belt. It points to a—well, to something that resembles a letter Y centered around a bright red star. The points are his horns and his face.”
    She squinted and puffed on her cigarette. Without much conviction, she said, “I see it.”
    She understood why people