Prologue.
It is a cold, rainy summer night and no sensible person would be out on a
night like this. A flash of lightning illuminates the Tokyo orphanage for
girls. Two suitcases, a cardboard box, a rolled up quilt, and a small
package wrapped in an Indian sari are left on the front stoop as a
mysterious figure huddled in a blanket rings the doorbell. The figure
kisses the package then runs into the night as the Mistress of the
Orphanage opens the door to find these things. She opens the package and
finds a small baby sleeping silently. The Mistress finds a letter clutched
in the baby's hand and opens it. She reads it quickly then takes the baby
inside along with the things on the front stoop.
FLASH! - Five years later we see the same girl sitting quietly on a bench
in the courtyard. Ten other girls run up and say," Star-girl, Star-girl,
head still in the clouds?" then run off laughing. 'Star-girl' stands up,
her eyes flashing fire, then runs into the orphanage and up to her little
room. She packs everything she owns into the two little suitcases, rolls
up her quilts, and storms out of the orphanage. It is a night much like
the one five years ago, and she walks to the park where she sees an
enormous tree. She sees a place in the branches where there seems to be
some sort of a platform. She takes careful aim, then one by one, throws
her things onto it and begins to climb.
FLASH! - Seven years later she is sitting on her platform looking around
her at her home. Her suitcases stacked in a corner, her quilt folded like
a sleeping bag, the three wooded crates she puts everything under or on top
of, and the neatly folded school uniform. "Mika Missou Bollares, Star-girl,
that's who I am." Then she hears a sound and looks around to the other
side of the platform and sees a small cardboard box with a nest in it, the
nest of her two pets, Michaela and Gabriel, doves. To the right of them
are another cardboard box with 13 kittens in it named, Big Dipper, Little
Dipper, Andromeda, Orion, Sirius, Cygnus, Leo, Lynx, Delphinius, Gemini,
Monocerous, Draco, and Phoenix. Big Dipper was all black, Little Dipper
was all black, but smaller, Andromeda was black with four white socks,
Orion was black with only socks on his front two feet, Sirius was black
with socks only on his two back feet, Cygnus was all white, Leo was black
except for the top of his head and the top part of his neck, Lynx was all
gray, Delphineous was gray with a black star on his forehead, Gemini was
split down the middle, all black on her left, and all white on her right,
Monocerous was all white with four black socks, Draco was a calico, and
Phoenix was a tortoiseshell. She picked up as many as she could hold and
hugged them and whispered, " I love you all, with all my heart."
