Lucky Star by Cathy Cassidy

Author:Cathy Cassidy [Cassidy, Cathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141910963
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2013-04-16T04:00:00+00:00

Cat brings up mugs of hot chocolate and a slice of French cheese for Lucky, and we sit on the floor looking up at the attic windows, looking past the orange haze to the velvet sky beyond. ‘It’s like one of those magic-eye pictures,’ Cat tells me. ‘Once you know what to look for, you can see it.’

‘Your dad must know loads about the stars,’ I say. ‘Is that what he does? Is he a scientist or something?’

‘No, no, this is just his hobby,’ she says, vaguely. ‘He knows lots about it, though. The names of the constellations and all that. He used to show me, when I was younger.’

‘Not now?’

Cat shrugs. ‘He’s too busy, these days.’ She gets up and switches on the light, and suddenly the windows to the sky are just two dull rectangles of glass in the slanting ceiling. The telescope looks smaller under the electric light, a spindly thing stranded in the middle of the carpet. The walls are covered with maps and charts, patterns of stars and lines and scribbles.

‘What are these?’ I ask Cat.

‘Star maps,’ she tells me. ‘They show you how to find the constellations. It’s just like with an ordinary map – it shows you where you are in the sky. The one you’re looking at is for the constellation of Orion the Hunter – these three stars make up his belt. That’s his sword, and that’s his shield …’

I frown. ‘I can’t see it,’ I admit. ‘Looks like someone’s been scribbling over a dot-to-dot book without following the numbers.’

‘I know … but that’s what those stars looked like to the first astronomers, thousands of years ago. This shape here is Orion’s companion, the Great Dog …’ Cat points to a chart of dots and lines that looks like a jerky sketch of a lopsided dog.

‘Hear that, Lucky?’ I grin. ‘You’ve got your own constellation!’

‘And a star,’ Cat says. ‘Sirius – the Dog Star.’

Lucky’s tail beats against the carpet, like he knew this all along. I sit down, leaning back against the desk. ‘A star map, to help you find your way around the night skies,’ I say. ‘Wish I’d known that when I was sticking up those stars at home the other day.’

Cat rolls her eyes. ‘What, are you gonna peel them all off again and arrange them like this?’ she scoffs, nodding at the charts. ‘I didn’t have you down as someone who followed the rules, Mouse. Why don’t you make your own stories up?’

‘I suppose,’ I say.

‘That’s what I do,’ Cat says. ‘I have my own theories about the sky, my own version of a star map. Ever see that Disney film, The Lion King?’

I nod. I remember seeing it on video, not long after I moved in with Jan and Paul. All that stuff about fathers and sons really upset me, coming just after Dad took off for India.

‘Remember how the lion king tells Simba he’ll always be there with him?’ she says. ‘In the stars? Well, that’s kind of like what I believe too.

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