Page 78 - Up Up and Away

Chapter 1

The sadness of Twinkle's parents continued to puzzle

Mirabel's Mum and Dad. As they sat by the fire on their

last night in Alaska, the Stars began to talk - all the stars.

Everyone was looking up at the night sky, where the

billions of stars appeared to be enormous and close. This

is one of the grandeurs of the wilderness: no city lights to

compete with the brightness of the constellations.

It all started when they met at the University of British

Columbia in the anthropology and astronomy classes.

Their names were Polly and Phil. Sarah and Ashley

realized that in all this time, they had never known the

names of these extremely private people, other than Mr.
and Mrs. Star, which was possibly not their real name. It

might have been the combination of brilliant scholars,
both wanting protection of their privacy that brought

them together.

They achieved high levels in their fields, Polly

specializing in astronomy, and Phil in anthropology.

While looking for research positions, they were

approached by a group they had never heard of,

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