Star

by Jennifer Li Shotz

  “My grandpa trained dogs in the army. He showed me some of the hand signals they used so they could give their dogs commands when they had to stay quiet in enemy territory. I found even more online.” Julian had stayed up late watching videos on dog training websites and carefully drawing each signal so he’d remember them. He’d even drawn himself giving the signals to Star in different scenes. On the page, she was sitting in a field, lying down in his room, and staying on the steps of the Winderhouser porch.

  “Cool!” Bryan traced his finger along the drawings as they headed inside. “This is like a comic book. You and Star are dog training superheroes.”

  Julian hesitated in the hallway. He turned back to Bryan. “She has to be looking at me for the signals to work. But I don’t know how to get her attention if she’s distracted. What if she’s sniffing a tree or something and I want her to sit?”

  “How did your Grandpa do it?”

  “I don’t know,” Julian admitted. “I didn’t think to ask. I was just trying to learn the signals.”

  Bryan ran a hand through his curls and narrowed his eyes.

  “What if you stomped your feet so she could feel the vibration?” Bryan said.

  “I’m not an elephant,” Julian said. “How do I stomp hard enough to shake the ground?”

  “Good point. That might only work on old floors.” Bryan squinted again. “What about flashing a light or something?”

  Ms. Khan came around the corner carrying a stack of towels almost as tall as she was. “What are you two talking about?”

  “How to get Star’s attention since we can’t call her name,” Bryan said.

  “I’ve got just the thing.” Ms. Khan nodded for them to follow her. The boys helped carry the towels to the linen closet, then trailed her to the office. On her desk was a black plastic collar with a small rectangular box—about three inches wide—attached to it. “This is a vibration collar. I got it just for Star, but since she wouldn’t let us get close, I couldn’t put it on her. I’ve seen how good she is with you, though. I bet she’ll let you do it.”

  “Will it hurt her?” Julian asked.

  “Not at all. It’s just enough to get her attention.” Ms. Khan placed the box against her arm and picked up a small remote control. She pushed the button, and Julian heard a faint buzzing sound coming from the box. “See? No pain. Want to give it a try?”

  The boys took turns pressing the collar against their own arms. It tickled Julian’s skin, but Ms. Khan was right—it didn’t hurt. She showed them how to use the remote control, then handed the whole set over to Julian. She also gave him a brand-new purple nylon collar. “While you’re at it, see if you can get this on her, too.”

  “Why does she need a new collar?” Julian wondered if Star would be sad to lose her last connection to Mrs. Winderhouser.

  “The one she’s got on is going to fall apart any day now. Plus this one’s got a tag for the shelter instead of her old owner’s information,” Ms. Khan said. “That way, if she ever gets lost, people will know to call us.”

  Julian gripped the purple collar tightly. This was one assignment he was determined to complete.

  * * *

  Julian hid the collars under the dog bed in the socialization room. He didn’t want Star to see them until he was sure she was ready. He remembered what his grandpa had said about building trust.

  Ms. Khan brought Star into the room from her kennel. Star still pulled and panted, her claws scratching against the floor until Ms. Khan dropped the leash. But she wasn’t leaping around or trying to get away. She settled into her corner, and Ms. Khan, with a final nod at the boys, headed for the office so they could put their training plan into action.

  Julian wanted to start by teaching Star the thumbs-up signal. The dog watched his legs as he moved closer to her, and she studied his face as he got on his knees about three feet away. They were at the same eye level, and she lifted her nose toward him, probably to smell where he’d been and what he’d had for lunch. He gave her a thumbs-up for looking at him and tossed her a piece of chicken. Her blue eyes went wide, as if she’d won a raffle. The chicken was gone in a flash. She looked at him again, her ears perked up, as if asking whether there was more where that came from. Julian grinned. Star got another thumbs-up and another treat.

  “Good girl.” He scooted closer. Star didn’t cower at all. Julian gave her a thumbs-up, but this time, instead of tossing the piece of chicken, he held it out toward her. She scooted forward and took the treat right from his hand. Julian wanted to leap for joy.

  “Yes!” Bryan said. “That was huge. Now try teaching her to sit.”

  “Okay.” Julian closed his eyes for a second, picturing the hand signal he’d drawn and remembering how his grandpa had raised his arm, palm up, in a single smooth motion. When he opened his eyes, Star was watching him, her head tilted to the side, as if she were waiting for the next signal.

  Julian held a treat between his fingers with his palm facing up. He put it right by her nose, then lifted his hand before she could grab it. Her nose followed the chicken, and she sat. Julian was so surprised, he almost forgot to give her the reward. He quickly gave her a thumbs-up and handed her the treat. He tried it again and again to make sure it hadn’t just been luck. Star got it right every time.

  “You’re such a smart girl!” Julian scratched her behind the ears. She leaned against his hand and stepped closer, placing her paw on Julian’s shoe. And for the first time, she wagged her tail.

  “Did you see that?” Julian asked.

  “Whoa,” Bryan said in an awestruck whisper. “She’s like a new dog.”

  “Then maybe it’s time for her to get a new collar.”

  Bryan passed him the purple collar. Julian held it out so Star could sniff it. “What do you think?”

  She nosed the collar, sniffing every inch of it. When she was done, she looked up at Julian. He gave her a thumbs-up and another treat, then let her lick the chicken off his fingers. He was afraid she might freak out when he touched her old collar, the way she did when he’d tried to walk her on the leash. He handed her another treat, and as she gently nipped it from his fingers, he touched the grimy collar around her neck. She stayed calm. As quickly and gently as he could, he unclipped the old collar and snapped on the new one.

  “Well done!” Bryan cheered him on.

  Julian tucked the old collar in his back pocket so Star couldn’t see it and took the vibration collar from Bryan. He held out another piece of chicken, and Star let him put the second collar on her, too. He scratched her behind the ear. She rubbed her head against his hand. “You look good in purple,” he said.

  Julian practiced the sit command with Star a couple more times. She was totally focused on him, her blue eyes fixed on his every movement. Julian wanted to try the vibration collar to see if it would get her attention. He had the remote in one hand and the treats in the other. He pressed the button for half a second and immediately gave Star a treat. She barely seemed to notice. “Do you think it worked?” he asked Bryan.

  “I don’t know,” Bryan said. “Maybe she blinked?”

  Julian wanted to get Star to look somewhere else so he could try to get her attention, but she wouldn’t take her eyes off him. “See if you can get her to watch you,” Julian said to Bryan.

  Bryan started hopping from one foot to the other in front of the door, his curls bouncing. Julian couldn’t help laughing as Bryan danced around—if you could call it that. But it got Star’s attention. The dog watched Bryan, her face full of curiosity. Julian was pretty sure that if she were a person, she’d be cracking up, too.

  This was his chance. Julian pushed the button on the remote, and Star’s head whipped around to face him. It had worked! He quickly gave her a treat, then realized he’d forgotten to give her a thumbs-up, so he gave the signal and another treat. Her tail swished back and forth.

  “I think she gets it,” Julian said.

  “Can I stop dancing now?” Bryan asked.


  Julian laughed. “Yeah. I think we can all take a break.”

  Bryan dropped into one of the chairs. Julian sat on the floor by the dog bed. He took the stuffed trout out of the basket and passed it back and forth between his hands. “I can’t believe that actually worked. The sitting, the collar, everything!”

  “Dogs don’t miss anything,” Bryan said. “Even though she was playing it cool, she totally knew what you were up to. She let you put the collars on her. She really trusts you.”

  “The chicken helped a lot,” Julian said.

  Bryan grinned. “Don’t tell my mom I fed her leftovers to the dogs.”

  “Seriously?” Julian’s eyes went wide. He tried to imagine sneaking food from his plate to bring to the shelter. His parents were so wiped out by dinner that they probably wouldn’t notice, but with his luck, Henry would catch him.

  “It was worth it,” Bryan said. “When Star wagged her tail? I was starting to think her tail didn’t work right. All she’d ever done was tuck it under her belly.”

  “That was awesome,” Julian said. They’d made so much progress, and he was glad he had someone to share this with.

  As the boys talked, Star crawled onto the dog bed and curled up beside Julian. He ran his fingers through her soft fur and traced the map of gray patches on her back. Her breathing slowed beneath his hand, and soon her eyes closed. She fell asleep, relaxed and content, her back warm against Julian’s leg. His chest swelled with pride. For the first time, she really felt like his dog.

  ★ Chapter 9 ★

  * * *

  * * *

  Julian sat at a table in the school library with an atlas and a history book about Michigan spread out in front of him. As he read, he flipped Star’s old tag back and forth in his hand, running his thumb over the engraved numbers, 11-25-15. It felt like a good luck charm. He’d asked Ms. Khan if he could keep the tag when he’d turned in Star’s old collar.

  “Of course!” she had said. “Great job today.” He’d tucked the tag into his pocket. And now he kept it there to remind himself, whenever he got frustrated at school or home, of how well the training was going.

  Julian and the rest of his class were in the library to look up facts on the empires of the Western Hemisphere so they could fill out a work sheet. Anyway, that’s what he was supposed to be doing. Julian had started to do the assignment, but he’d gotten lost in a map of the Roman Empire. Then he’d started thinking about how the Romans must have left behind all sorts of buried treasure, so he looked for books about that. The library didn’t have any, but that’s when he remembered a book he’d checked out once that had a chapter on buried treasure right there in Michigan.

  Julian and Henry used to make up all kinds of adventure games when they were little, before Henry started teasing him about school. They’d play pirates or cops and robbers. They’d pretend to be soldiers sneaking through the woods or bandits who needed to escape across the lake. When he got older, Julian learned that the Great Lakes had been such a busy trade route that there really had been pirates and bank robbers—and shipwrecks and shootouts—there. And they’d left all kinds of gold and silver sunk in the lakes and buried in the fields—just like old movies about the Wild West, except in his own backyard.

  Bryan flopped into the seat next to him. “What are you reading?”

  Julian wanted to shuffle the books under his notebook. He didn’t want Bryan to make fun of him for looking for treasure, but he wasn’t fast enough. Bryan pulled the history book toward him, and his face lit up. He leaned in and whispered, “Have you gotten to the chapter on shipwrecks?”

  Julian’s eyes went wide with surprise. Bryan liked this book, too? “Not yet.”

  “There are all these shipwrecks sitting out there in the lakes,” Bryan said, his voice rising with excitement. “Just like the ones you see in pirate movies. And no one really knows what’s in them all. Some of them could have millions of dollars in gold.”

  “My grandpa said there are supposed to be thousands of wrecks out there,” Julian said. He wished he’d been able to read all the placards at the shipwreck exhibit they’d gone to at the museum. His grandpa would have helped him, but with other people around, Julian had been too embarrassed to stand there struggling through all the words. Instead, he had spent the day studying the old maps and artifacts that were rusted by lake water.

  “More than six thousand!” Bryan said, lowering his voice as if he were sharing a big secret. “I started reading up on it before I moved here. I couldn’t picture lakes with pirates and shipwrecks. The only lakes I ever saw were flat and calm. I had no idea how big and stormy the Great Lakes were. Or how much cash was shipped on boats.”

  As soon as Bryan paused to take a breath, Julian jumped in. “There’s buried treasure all over Michigan. Not just in the lakes.”

  “I read about that, too!” Bryan said. “All these loggers would hide their gold in the middle of the woods, and farmers buried everything in their fields—back before everyone used banks. How come no one ever talks about how wild it was out here?”

  Julian was amazed at how much Bryan had read. He seemed to know everything. He wondered how Bryan did it with his dyslexia, but Julian was too caught up in finally having someone as interested in buried treasure as he was to ask about it. He never would have imagined that Bryan was curious about all these things. Julian had been wrong about the new kid, just like everyone else had been too.

  “Did you hear about the people who stole money from banks in Chicago?” Julian asked. “During the big fire. They brought it here to hide it.”

  “No way!” Bryan said. “Why haven’t they made a movie about that?”

  Julian smiled, happy to be able to teach Bryan something for a change. He rummaged in his backpack until he found one of his old maps of the Lake Michigan coast, and he carefully unfolded the crackling, yellowed paper and laid it on the table. He’d never shown anyone else at school his maps, but he didn’t feel self-conscious around Bryan. He could imagine them mapping out an adventure together, searching for treasure.

  “Lots of the treasures are still out there,” Julian said. “Or at least no one knows for sure if they’ve been found.” He pointed to a few markings along the coast. “These used to be old hunting camps. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the money is buried in one of these places. No one knows exactly where, because the land has changed so much. But these old maps have all kinds of clues.”

  Bryan leaned over the faded paper, studying it with narrowed eyes. “I bet you’re right. Where did you find this?”

  “I’ve got a ton of them,” Julian said. “My dad and I find them at garage sales.” Julian’s parents had figured out how good he was with maps when their GPS stopped working on a family road trip. Using an old map from the glove compartment, he’d navigated them across the Upper Peninsula to their campsite in the Porcupine Mountains. Ever since then, his parents had helped him build his map collection. His favorites were the antique ones with forgotten territories, logging roads, and railroad tracks.

  “I love old maps,” Bryan said. “It’s like they’re full of secrets right under our feet. I’ve got one that’s like a hundred years old—from a gold rush camp out in California.”

  “That’s really cool.” Julian had never met anyone who cared about old maps and treasure hunting as much as he did. He flipped the pages of the history book. “I just wish this book had more than one chapter on buried treasure.”

  “Let’s look online,” Bryan said.

  They huddled around one of the library computers and searched for the wildest stories they could find. Bryan scrolled down a webpage, passing an outlined landscape that looked familiar to Julian.

  “Wait—go back!” Julian pointed to the screen. The map didn’t have any of the roads or buildings that were there today, but he’d recognize Silver Lake anywhere. “That’s not far from here.”

  The boys read the story of a stagecoach full of gold that had been held up by bandits. B
ryan read a little faster than Julian, but he waited patiently as Julian scrolled down the page at his own pace. The bandits were afraid of getting caught, so they had buried the stolen gold near the lake. But they never came back for it. As far as anyone knew, half a million dollars’ worth of gold was still out there somewhere. And it was so close to where they lived!

  “Can you imagine finding it?” Bryan asked.

  Julian shook his head. “I can’t believe that lake isn’t swarmed with people looking for this treasure.”

  “I practically spent the whole summer at that lake,” Bryan said. “We’d just moved here, and I had nothing else to do. What if there was gold right there that whole time?”

  Julian wished he’d known Bryan over the summer. They could’ve hung out after reading camp, exploring the lake and searching yard sales for maps and other treasures. He wondered if Bryan had ever seen the Winderhouser place. He thought Bryan would be as fascinated by Mrs. Winderhouser’s collection as he was. Plus, he’d get to see where Star came from.

  But Julian didn’t get a chance to ask. Someone cleared his throat loudly behind the boys, making them jump.

  “Julian, Bryan—you’ve already finished your assignment?” Their teacher’s voice was full of doubt. Everyone knew that reading assignments took Julian forever.

  Julian’s face warmed, and he cast a glance toward Bryan. Even though Bryan knew about his dyslexia, Julian didn’t want him to know how poorly he was doing in school.

  “I . . . I thought I could finish it at home,” Julian stammered. There was no way he could do it on his own before class was over.

  “Sorry, Mr. Helmer,” Bryan said quickly. “I asked Julian to show me something.”

  Mr. Helmer made a big show of checking his watch. “There’s still fifteen minutes left in the period. You might be able to finish it.”

  Julian waited until Mr. Helmer walked away. Then he took one final glance at the Silver Lake map before pushing back his chair. “I better get back to it.”