The Star Group Read Online Free PDF

was one step ahead of me.
    “I am trying to impress you,” I said.
    She seemed genuinely puzzled. “Why?”
    I don't know where the words came from. God or the devil.
    “Because I like your ass,” I said.
    She laughed. “I am not my ass, at least I hope not. Don't you like me as a person?”
    So cool, way. “No.”
    She threw her orange peels at me. “Then I'm not going to cut your hair, Danny Boy.”
    I absorbed her punishment. I spoke quietly.
    “Would you go out with me?” I asked.
    She softened. She was surprised. “You want to go out with me?”
    “Yes.”
    Very soft. “Why?”
    “Because I like you. A lot, actually.”
    She considered. “I like you.”
    I swallowed. “Really?”
    “Yeah. I was going to write my phone number in your yearbook. I was hoping you might call me this summer.”
    These were truly amazing sentences. “No.”
    She nodded solemnly. “Yeah. You want to go to Disneyland together tonight?”
    I had to lower my head, I was overcome.
    “Yeah, sure, Gale. I think that would be fun.”
    Her words were a kiss. “I think so, too, Daniel.”
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    AFTER MY LAST CLASS, I FLOATED HOME. I didn't need a ride. Really, I walked home a foot off the ground, all two miles. I needed the time to be alone, to savor the moment. I had never felt so happy, nothing in my life had even come close to the high I was experiencing. Before saying goodbye to me, Gale had asked if she could sit next to me during the graduation ceremony, which was strictly against the rules. We were supposed to sit in alphabetical order. But I told her no problem, I could receive someone else's diploma, they were all the same to me. Life was an amazing and miraculous creation of God's love. I mean, I was having a great day. Gale Schrater liked me!
    And on the way home I passed a used bookstore.
    Touched Books – I had been in the place many times. I read as much as I wrote, and used books were cheaper than those at Barnes & Noble or library fines. Sometimes I was able to buy a box of assorted titles for ten bucks. Lately I had been reading a lot of fantasy and murder mysteries. I was a big J.R.R. Tolkien and Elmore Leonard fan. I had also developed a fascination with the occult and New Age books. Still thinking of Gale—her face not her ass—I wandered into the store.
    The owner was Mr. Barnes, sixty going on ninety. He drank a bottle of Maalox for an after-lunch snack. He had lines on his face as deep as trenches. His glasses were magnifying reading glasses. Each time he greeted me I felt like a fish in a bowl inside his brain. He nodded at me as I came in before going back to his crossword puzzle. He had a dictionary for a head, but I liked him just the same.
    I went straight to the New Age section and without looking picked up a book entitled The Magnetic Reality . There was a magnet on the cover, streams of colored force lines radiated from pole to pole, red and black etchings of unseen powers. There was also a huge glass eye, poorly drawn, which appeared to be on the verge of shattering. I had never seen the book before. I bought it without glancing at the inside, gave Mr. Barnes a wrinkled dollar, and left the store.
    I had never done that before.
    My house was empty. Both my parents worked full title, my mother as a nanny for rich snobs, my father at a local warehouse. We didn't have a lot, but my mom and dad were fine people, honest and unpretentious. They both planned to attend my graduation ceremony, which was scheduled for six sharp. My mother was very proud of me. My dad never said anything, but I think he thought I was OK. I hoped they hadn't bothered to get me a present; I hated it when they spent money on me that they didn't have. I really did wear secondhand clothes.
    Inside my bedroom, under a poster of Hemingway and a blowup of the cover of Fahrenheit 451 , I plopped down on my bed and opened my new book. The first chapter explained how a magnet could be used to obtain readings on