Ellie opened it and discovered a delicate gold chain on which hung a heart-shaped locket and a tiny key. “Oh, my gosh! It’s so pretty. Thank you, Kathy.”
“I put a picture of Chris inside the locket,” Kathy said. “And the key is to remind you not to give your heart away to any guy who doesn’t deserve it.”
“Not to worry. It won’t happen.” Ellie fastened the chain around her neck, took a deep breath, and asked, “What did you give the Davidsons?”
“I signed the papers. They’re Chris’s mom and dad now.”
Tears instantly filled Ellie’s eyes. “Are you sure?”
“I have to do what’s best for Chris. I have to get out of his life while there’s still time for him to forget me. I know it’s the right thing to do for him.” Kathy’s voice shook. “I made another decision, too. I’m not going back to school in January.”
“Oh, Kathy, no—”
“The Davidsons have already tried to talk me into staying, but this is what I want to do. I’ve outgrown high school anyway.”
Ellie understood perfectly. Because of what she’d been through, Kathy was old beyond her years.
“What about your diploma?”
“I can take exams, and if I pass the tests I’ll get the diploma anyway. It’s done all the time.”
“But June’s only six months away.” Ellie didn’t want Kathy to leave.
“I have to get out of here, Ellie. If Pam’s really going to be Chris’s mother, then I can’t be hanging around, now can I?” Kathy took a shuddering breath. “I’m going to Kuwait and stay with my parents … just for a while. Until I figure out what to do with the rest of my life.”
“You’re Chris’s mother. How can you give him up?”
“Because I love him. Because he deserves more than I can give him.”
“But—”
“I’ve made up my mind. Please don’t make it any harder by trying to talk me out of it.”
“Chris won’t know you—”
“Pam says she’ll tell him he’s adopted. She says that if he ever asks—when he asks—she’ll tell him all about me and show him pictures of the two of us. She’ll tell him how much I loved him and how I took care of him when he was only a baby. And I’ve written a long letter for Pam to show him when he asks why I gave him away. I’ve read about adopted kids who worry about that. I want him to know I love him, but that I couldn’t keep him. I don’t ever want him to hate me.”
“Well, you tell him to contact me and I’ll tell him the truth, too,” Ellie announced, fighting back tears.
“Thanks. Maybe I will.”
“Wh-When are you leaving?”
“In a couple of days. I need to make a quick, clean break.”
“W-Will you write me?”
“I will. You’re a good friend, Ellie.”
The tears in Ellie’s eyes made the lights across the lake blur. She looked up. The stars looked like glittering seeds spread across a black field, sown by God the way a child scatters jacks. “I’ll always keep your secret. I promise by the light of the stars.”
“Thank you for that.”
Ellie said, “You’ll be with Chris again, Kathy. No matter how far away you go, no matter who raises him … you’ll find each other again one day. Just like the light from those stars finds its way down to us.”
Together, their shoulders touching, she and Kathy sat on the end of the dock, gazing up at the starry, starry night.
Epilogue
The stars have been shining above us forever: the North Star, which guided sailors on their tall ships; the star of wonder, which led wise men across a desert toward a newborn child. The stars peek and gleam at us through the majestic night sky.
They lead.
They guide.
They unite strangers, loved ones, the lost, the lonely, the hopeful.
They hear wishes, too.
Select your own star. There’s a wishing star for everyone. Take time this very night to look up with an open heart and make your own wish, dream your own dream.
Just repeat these words:
Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight.
For wishes and dreams can come true. We all—strangers, loved ones, the lost, the lonely, the hopeful—can be one family, on one planet, in one galaxy, in one universe. We belong to one another. And to the stars.
Lurlene McDaniel, Starry, Starry Night
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