Read Secret Star for Free Online Page B

past the sawmill and into river-bottom country. It was dusk by then, with the evening star coming out like a highlight in a polished brass sky. There was light enough for Tess to see Kamo’s scarred face when she turned to him.
    â€œOkay,” she said to him, hard. “You want to find your father.”
    He nodded.
    â€œWhy?” she demanded. He’d better have a good answer to justify what he was putting her through, not some selfish reason. Heck, for all she knew he might want a place where he could stay and not have to work. He might want to tell his father off. He might want to kill him.
    â€œThat’s kind of a dumb question,” Kam said.
    â€œNo, it’s not. No dumber than a lot of the questions you’re asking me. Why is it so important to find your father?”
    He stopped walking, but he didn’t answer right away. He stood where he was and looked off to where the dark hills crowded against the golden-bugle color in the sky. On the nearest hillside an old orchard hulked, overgrown with poison ivy. Everywhere the stony farms were abandoned, pastures going to locust and cedar, wilderness taking them back.
    Night noises were starting. Spring frogs.
    Kam said, so softly she could barely hear him, “You’ll think I’m a jerk.”
    â€œMaybe.” She could not afford to have mercy. Her voice came out as hard as the stony hills. “What do you want your father for?”
    He took a breath and looked straight at her with his head lifted, defiant, as he said it. “Love.”
    Tess gawked at him.
    â€œI want somebody to love me,” he said, and his voice didn’t stay quite steady, and neither did his face.
    It took her breath away. No boy she knew or had ever known would have had the guts to say it, to tell the real reason. Boys she knew at school, trying so hard to be cool in hundred-dollar running shoes—they would have joked around. Or they would have come out with some lame reason, like wanting money. Or they would have gotten all studly and mad.
    Kam wasn’t being macho. Just for that alone the whole world should have loved him.
    â€œYou don’t—have anybody?”
    He shook his head. His face flinched, and he turned away.
    They walked on, and Tess knew what she had to do, both for him and for herself. But it was dark, with the stars shining up from the black creek water, before she could say it.
    â€œOkay,” she told Kam. “Talk to Daddy.”
    When Tess walked in she saw dinner waiting on the table and Daddy waiting to eat with her. “Kamo,” he said, looking a little surprised and not quite happy when Kam walked in with her. Tess saw him trying not to jump to conclusions. Daddy was fair. “You looking for supper again?” he asked, making himself smile at Kam. Daddy had manners. “Put on another plate, Tess.”
    Kam shook his head. “No,” he said, his voice low, “I didn’t come for supper.” Tess knew he wasn’t about to eat Daddy’s macaroni and cheese when he planned on asking unwelcome questions. He leaned against the sink edge, bracing himself. From his wheelchair Daddy peered up at him.
    â€œWhat’s wrong, son?”
    â€œMr. Mathis, I need to talk with you.”
    But then Kam didn’t seem to know what to say, and Tess saw the color start to seep out of Daddy’s face, saw him going gray, saw his hands clutch at Ernestine’s wheels. “Daddy,” she said, butting in to get this over with, “Kam’s last name is Rojahin. He’s looking for his father. He thinks maybe—”
    â€œNo,” Daddy said sharply.
    â€œI haven’t seen him since I was a little kid,” Kam said. “I don’t know where to start.”
    â€œNot here.” Daddy’s hands jerked backward, rolling his chair away from Kam till it bumped against the table; the lid slid off the macaroni pan with a crash. “I don’t