Read Online Stardust by Rue Volley - Free Book Online Page A

or not liking him at the house. It is just something no one talks about. Ever.”
    “Well, I promise that I meant nothing by it and I wish you would have told me, Jazz.”
    I started walking again and the path turned, then turned again and finally we reached the center and a small stone. I leaned down and placed some violets I had pulled as we walked along in front of it. Cody stepped up and looked down on the stone and then at me. I rose up and grinned at him.
    “This is Bailey, Mom never prepped for a boy’s name, so my dad named him.”
    Cody nodded to me and then looked back at the stone. His eyes looked as if he may cry and I tilted my head and took his hand.
    “He was always sick, he was born with a broken heart…or so my mom said. He had a congenital heart defect that eventually killed him.”
    Cody leaned down and ran his fingers along the small stone and stood up next to me. He turned and spoke as if he had lost someone he knew.
    “When a child dies, it is such a sad thing that many times a parent never recovers from it, it causes trauma far exceeding anything else they will ever experience in their lives,” he paused. “I am sorry, that sounds so clinical, the truth is, it is a tragedy that never ends.”
    I nodded to him as he sniffed and then looked at the stone again.
    “I should have told you, Cody. It was unfair of me to just dump it on you like that as if you did something wrong. I am sorry, I am just not really myself right now.”
    He stepped closer to me and I looked down. His finger went under my chin and lifted it so I had to look into his eyes. “You don’t need to apologize, Jazz, you did nothing wrong.”
    I nodded to him. “When Mom tells us to visit the garden, she means we should visit him and say hello.” I glanced at the stone. Cody kept his eyes on me.
    “Do you remember him?” he asked as I turned my face back to look into his blue eyes.
    “He died when I was five, so all I remember is that we got a new baby, I never saw him much. He didn’t go outside and Mom spent all of her time with him. Dad seemed to work more and the house became quieter than usual. For the two years he was with us, it seemed like the life was just sucked out of the house and then I remember hearing Mom and Dad argue about where to bury him and then we had a funeral and he was placed here. Dad wanted him at home, Mom said he should be in the garden…obviously they disagreed, but she won, as usual, and so here he is...Bailey, my little brother I never knew.”
    Cody pulled me to him and at first, I wanted to simply step away, but as the warmth of his chest comforted me, I kind of sunk into him. He leaned down and his lips kissed the top of my head and then he whispered to me. “We are all stardust.” I stepped back and looked him over.
    “What?”
    “Stardust, I mean…we come from the stars…”
    “and to the stars we return,” I said as he tilted his head at me.
    “Yes.”
    “Where did you hear that?” I asked him as he messed with his hair and looked at me, his expression one of confusion.
    “I just remember it, it must have been something my parents said to me when I was little, or something.”
    I paused as he reached out to me and I took his hand again.
    “How about you give me a tour of the town?” he asked and I nodded to him, unable to speak and missing my dad even more.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
                   

 
     
    Chapter Six
    When It Rains
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    O ne thing I always found strange is how you can leave something and never forget it. Never forget the details, the way it made you feel or how you missed it, without even knowing. I stood on Main Street and stared down the rows of shops on it. All of them I knew well. All of them owned by people in this town who also knew me. Knew me well, not just a name, like it is in New York City. The city is so large that, unless you take the time