Star in the Forest Read Online Free PDF

beauty salons. She taught me everything she knows. I’m a whiz at layers. I can give his hair a windblown look.”
    I snatched the scissors from Crystal’s hands and stuck the brush there. “You can brush and style. But absolutely no layers!”
    “No problem,” she said. “I can work magic with a brush.”
    At first I didn’t believe her because of herscraggly mess of hair. But as she styled Star’s fur, I had to admit, it looked like she knew what she was doing. And Star was sighing with delight the whole time. Maybe Crystal’s mom had worked at the Supercuts in the mall for a while or something.
    When Crystal was done, she said, “Tah-dah!” Star seemed to hold his head higher, like he was proud of his new look. He did look sensational. His fur was white as the moon. The star on his head was black as the night. We ran around and played with him. I admit I was nervous he’d take off, but he never left our sight. When it was time to go, we hugged him goodbye and hooked him back up to the chain.
“Hasta mañana
, Star,” I said, and blew him a kiss.
    On the way back from the forest, Crystal said, “Tell me a story, Zit.”
    That was a first. It was as though she was out of her own stories. Luckily, I did have plenty of stories: stories Papá would tell me.
    “About what?” I asked.
    “About, um …” She looked at Star. “Animals.”
    I thought. “Well,” I said, “my dad told me how in the time of the great-great-grandparents, people used to have special animals. When a baby was born, they’d figure out what its special animal was. And if something happened to the animal, like it got shot, then the person would get hurt, too. He would feel the animal’s pain. And if the animal died, the person died, too.”
    “That’s awful!” Crystal said.
    “But also,” I said, “if a person needed extra strength, like superpowers, he could think about his animal and use its powers. Like if it was a deer, he could run really fast.”
    Crystal was nodding and thinking and listening closely. “So their fates were tied up together.”
    I nodded.
    “You think Star is someone’s animal?” she whispered. “That there’s some human out there who has his same fate?”
    I shrugged.
    But inside, I knew. I knew who shared Star’s fate. I’d known ever since the day he wagged his tail at me. And every time he licked me, I felt more sure. It wasn’t just a coincidence that I met Star right after Papá left. Papá must have asked his special animal to stay with me.
    This made me feel good.
    But Star was illegal, too, like Papá. No license, no papers. If the dog cops came, I couldn’t prove Star was really mine. And if the person who thought he was Star’s owner took him, there was nothing I could do. This scared me. Star could disappear at any time, just like Papá.
    When I got home, the drywallers were still at work, and my sisters were watching TV in the living room. Mamá and Dalia had started talking again because Dalia had broken up with her boyfriend and said she wanted to come home. We’d all missed her a lot anyway, and she did help out with Reina after school.
    Mamá was zipping around the kitchen, frying meat and heating beans and tortillas for dinner. She wore a short jeans skirt and a silky black top and dangly golden earrings. And she was wrapped up in a haze of perfume that nearly drowned out the sizzling meat smell.
    “Where are you going?” I asked. She was too dressed up for work.
    “Out with my girlfriends. Dalia’s watching you and Reina.” She was stirring and flipping and grabbing cups and forks so fast she didn’t even look at me. “I’ll be back late.”
    This made me red-hot furious.
What?!
I wanted to scream.
Reina and I aren’t good enough to hang out with on a Saturday night?!
    I decided I wouldn’t talk to her.
    She snatched a plate with one hand. With the other hand, she scooped out beans and slid some meat onto the plate. She did the same with three more plates, then