Dec. 31 ('78)

I can't believe that tomorrow is 1979. It seems only yesterday that I celebrated 1978's beginning.

Staru will be about 470 tomorrow and so will her sister. I am not sure, because they look only 10.

60 mph. That's a rather fast way to trot! But Lightning does it! He is so incredibly speedy he has often borne Staru to safety.

On the TV, Bill Birrud is talking about "Creatures of the Amazon."

Dec. 30 (morning)

I'm sad because of Q. I feel like the knight in the picture trying to save the queen even though he can't. And soon the dragon eats her up.

Dec. 29

I've been sick with Russian Flu since last Saturday, which almost ruined Christmas and the fact that V, C, Aunt I, and the others were here.

Mommy buried Q. I'm going to carve a gravemark with my new Scout knife, like this:

To Q
Sept. 9, '78 - Dec. 26, '78
Thank you
for living with us

Q used to go up the bars of his cage upside-down and backwards, and skinny through his seed cups. I don't think his successor or any other parry-keet with good sense will dot that.

I think my next parrakeet will be called Junior, to remember a great bird.

Dec. 26

Q died today.

Dec. 20

This is my sister Dinar, while she was on D.

The soldiers from D captured her and took her back to D. The queen there made her a lady-in-waiting, but I came and took her home to Planet the very evening she got there. That picture was taken just before we left.

I sent a duplicate of this picture to Robin. She said she was.....?

Dec. 16

We got our Christmas tree today and put the lights on. I was sick for 7 days before with flu.

I've finished Part 2 of my Staru books and will soon be done with Part 3. I need more notebooks.

I'm going to buy a buckskin Mustang as soon as I get some money. His name is Wildfire. He is going to be the fighter of the Swinging B ranch.

I've forgotten what Lori looks like, or her horses. Soon I'll forget her altogether! Oh, I hope I don't! Then I would have no best friend except Kari. I like Kari, but I refuse to let her take Lori's place. Lori is my only friend who understands me and my falcons. I have not yet revealed my hawks to Kari or anybody. It might be 8 months before I see Lori again.

If wishes were lightnings, mortals would ride.

That's a saying I made up. It's true because only Dinar and I can ride lightnings because we're immortal and have magic.

On the opposite page are my father and mother and my dog, Pure-Heart. So far I've found 2 big photos like these and I hope to find one more to send to Robin.

Pure-Heart is a Samoyed, but while we were living at Falcon Hall he had to have his neck hair slicked down, which made him look like a wolfhound and feel very miserable.

My mother's name was KB, while my father's name was CWA. Princess C is my mother's sister.

My father and mother look like Russians. We all do. I don't know why (except my sister looks Italian), because none of us even came from Earth.

Tomorrow Mom and I are going to put the ornaments and tinsel on the tree.

Dec 9 (morning)

Last night Kim took her pillow and put it all the way across the room and started tugging at other people's pillows. She was sound asleep, too.

Hattie gave me a little green decanter of perfume shaped like a frog. He's filled with Sweet Honesty.

I gave Laurie a lot of candy. She was the only one who got candy. Also Kristi got candy.

(later)

We went to the Wooden Shoe for breakfast, and now we're at Tanya's house. The girls are playing 21.

Dec. 8

I am at a slumber party at Tanya's house. We are about to go to bed, after the biggest dinner I've ever had. Tanya has a beautiful house.

I wonder if I'll wake up in the middle of the night.

Dec. 4

I'm writing books about Staru in notebooks. I've finished Part One and am more than halfway through Part Two.

Kari and I often play Staru. She is almost always someone from J or a girl from Similina.

Nov. 28

Q can act like a trained falcon. I put him on the doorknob, hold a piece of lettuce a few feet away, and whistle. He will fly to my hand.

I'm writing about Staru in notebooks. So far I've filled one and about half of another.

I have Robin, Ivanhoe Whirlwind, and Flicka. Flicka's mate is going to be the Appaloosa Performance Horse. I'm going to call him Starbuck.

I wonder what I should call their foal? If I put the two names together, I get Flarka. I wonder if that sounds right? It does to me.

I have new friends. They're Kari, Kim, Anne, and Nathan (we know about Nathan already).

Nov. 27

Thanksgiving vacation just ended. Mrs. B, D.R., Mrs. D., N.A., Uncle D, and Aunt J came to see us. D.R. and I went to the beach.

Nov. 5

Yesterday me and 5 others from my scout troop went to Wilderness Park.

We made chili and I had 2 helpings. It was great. We also had carrot and celery sticks, fruit punch, and bread and butter.

Nov. 3

I got a letter from Lori.

Mom won't let me use binder paper too write to Lori.

Dip, dip, and swing.
My paddle's keen and bright,
Flashing with silver,
Follow the wild
geese flight
Dip, dip, and swing.

I learned that at school.

Here's a gold coin, the only kind made today. To me it looks awful and not at all like gold.

Oct. 30

I'm going to be a Princess for Halloween, which is tomorrow. Mom and Granny fixed my costume, while Dad and I carved the PUNKIN. Here's what he looks like --

He doesn't REALLY look like that, but I tried to draw him.

The books A.C. Bent wrote are very fat, with a lot of writing. There are many bits and pieces of information about the mothers and fathers of my hawks.

Lori, where are you now? Do you still like me? I do ----! I care so much!

Oct. 29

I'm going to call Terrang "Ivanhoe Whirlwind." When he gets old enough to have children, I'll get him Ruffian for a mare.

Ivanhoe Whirlwind + Ruffian
Filly - Ivanhoe's Beauty
Colt - Ruffian Star

It's almost 6:50 P.M., so in 10 minutes there's going to be Hardy Boys. I'd better get my jammies on, so bye.

Oct. 28

Mom ordered me 10 calendars for Scouts. With those I can earn $2.50 for me. That's almost enough, when added to the money already in my box, to buy Terrang.

I keep calling him Terrang, even though I don't like that name. I've got to think up a name before I get him.

Oct. 27

(From Staru's narrative)

I've got Lady back!!!

I caught her in a magic bow-net trap today. T embraced her and danced with her all over the place.

The fat books of recrods were written by my grandfather, who came to Earth and took the name of Arthur C. Bent. He wrote the books and took the photos, most of them. Some were taken by Dinar.

I got a letter from Robin yesterday, it was great. She found her cousins Mark, Princess, Tiny, Jason and Keeta. They have a ship called the "Phoenix."

Robin's working on a ship call the "Tiger". I might build a ship too, but for now I'm content with my lightning.

Oct. 23

I'm sorry I haven't entered for a long time.

Day before yesterday I got my new parakeet. He's "cobalt blue" and his name is Q.

I watched "Ivanhoe" yesterday night. It was lovely and Mom said she would try to get me the book.

It's awful hot. For the first time since I got here I've been able to see the ocean. It was so hot some of the kids got nosebleeds.

Dear Granny is here. I asked if she'd like to see my horses, and she said "not now." I don't know why.

I've written lots of letters to Lori and Robin. I so wish Staru and Robin were real........they seem so real but at the very bottom of my heart I know they aren't. I know there's no G-C, nor C, or J, no D, nor Planet!!!!

I so wish all of that existed and I could travel on a bolt of lightning.

I've made up these things because I can't have them. The more I make these things the more I want them....

I want my friends back....!

Oh, there's something else. Lady's gone. Forever. She flew away.

T, my bald eagle, had been so devoted to her he searched all over for her. Once he caught a glimpse of her, and tried to call her, but a strange force prevented his crying out. I think it was R.

I've found (on Planet) two fat books of records, all about my falcons. With photos of their parents, grandparents, and themselves.

Lady of the wilderness,
flying high and forever free,
She'll never have to serve me
anymore.

Oct. 14

I went on a trip with the Scouts today to the Placerita Canyon Park. We took two little hikes and then a three-mile hike. Mr. Smally, the man who led us, said we'd find a creek. But we didn't, to he took some of us to scout on with him and the rest of them stayed behind with Denise.

We traveled a long way, and decided to turn back. By sheer good luck we made the wrong turn, and ended up at the creek!

We drank from the creek and waded around, while Mr. Smally went back and got the others.

We got our tennies all wet and when we retraced our steps to the trail, our shoes went SQUISH, SQUISH.

We found a little red and green froggy about 1 1/2" long and he held him and let him go.

Oct. 13

I have almost nothing but bad things to tell, so I'll leave it to Staru. Take it away!

(from Staru's narrative)

On one of my visits to Earth, I discovered only one thing similar to Planet.

I found this on the evening of my third day there, at about 7:00.

I heard the trickling of water. I followed it, drawn as if by a magnet, and found a spring similar to ours.

I got my hand wet in the cool water. As I did so, I saw a white cat drinking from the pool, and a frog jumped - PLONK - into the pool!

I took out my willow whistle and played a tune. All of a sudden, I seemed to be on Planet again, with tall trees all round. The spring bubbled and gurgled. It seemed to be keeping time to the song. The cat darted its paw in after a goldfish, missed, and began to lick its paw.

The frog climbed up onto the clover-carpeted island in the middle of the pool. He called REDEEP once and disappeared.

All of a sudden lightning split the sky, and a mist rolled over the ground. And there was my twin sister Dinar standing there. I dropped my whistle, and all of a sudden everything vanished.

Oct. 12

I entered a Benson-and-Hedges sweepstakes. The prize is 100,000 pennies! If I win, I'll be able to buy lots of things. I'll be able to buy Flicka and Starbuck, Yaba and Larkspur, and lots of things! In fact -- I might be able to buy a real horse and pay for his upkeep.

Many of the prizes were ridiculous like 1,000 feet of dental floss, 100 bags of confetti, and 100 pounds of marshmallows. 100,000 pennies is funny, too, but it's worth $1,000.

Wonder if I could become one of those ladies who cluttered up the house with prizes? That might not be as fun as it sounds but I can always sell some of the stuff.

Nathan owns one square inch of Alaska. Maybe I could win that in a contest. I've heard you can.

Oct. 11

Today was my first Scout meeting. We made tambourines and drums and played a game.

Also Denise - that's our leader - gave out calendar order lists. But were only allowed to ask over the telephone! I've called three people and every body said no!

Oct. 10

Mom found "Winter Adventures" yesterday! How super-duper it seemed at first! But after I'd read it, everything was commonplace again.

Here's a list of my books:

1. The Girls at Horse-Cart Manor.
2. The Glorious Summer and Fall.
3. Two Girls and 12 Horses.
4. J and T and 13 Horses.
5. The Note in the Shack.
6. The Mystery of the Telegram.
7. The Mystery of the Old Watch.
8. The Clue of the Abandoned Baby
9. The Initials in the Painting
10. Thunderchase
11. Winter Adventures
12. The Frightful Fire
12. The Mystery of the Pill Bottle (unifinished).

T and J and their friends are rather interesting:

J, 16 (note brown hair and shortness)
T, 18 (note dark gold hair).
Marie, 18 (note blonde hair)
Ann, 16 (note thinness)
Miss Trance 50
Jim 17
Heidi 16 (note light brown hair)

and others.

It's nearing 7:05. I'm going to go to a Scout meeting tomorrow.

Enough about these somewhat unimportant affairs. I'd better get down to business. My falcons are getting out of hand. I think they're homesick. It wouldn't do to send them home to old V Dr., because when they came back and told me how it was, I'd probably cry.

Oct. 8

Aunt B came tonight. She doesn't feel very well, so she's going to sleep over.

Sleep over. I did that twice with Lori. It was so much fun playing Staru in bed, and playing with the horses.

Someday I'm going to bring my horses to life. I'll travel all over. I'll try to find some horses that are "spittin' images" of my horse models. I'll buy them, too.

I wish I could see Lori..........

Oct. 7

I wish I could go to Staru's forest planet (mine really, since she and I are one and the same) where exotic flowers and trees grow, wild animals roam free and unmolested, plenty of water and food, and soft grass to lie on.

Many lakes, streams, and rivers are located all over, so you always have water. Blue jays, white doves, and other birds are almost always shedding their feathers, and you can pick them up and make clothes out of them. R usually wears the shirt and shorts she brought from Earth, but when she rushed with her sister to Earth to protect Fury's herd, she wears a long gown of shimmering dove's feathers, sprigged with cardinal's plumes, and a long cape made out of the latter. The thread is made of braided spider-webs or silk worm threads, the needle, a rabbit's bone. For an Earthling, sewing these dresses would be extremely tedious work, but we do it easily.

The gold satin shoes we wear on our missions were produced by magic; but the silk tights were hand-woven.

To do this, several silk-worm cocoons would be unwound and the thread strung on a small bamboo loom. We would weave like spiders until we had our tights.

It would be fun to have been Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars. When she and Luke Skywalker were trapped at a chasm and the Storm Troopers were coming, Luke lassoed something at the top of the room and the Princess and Luke grabbed on and swung over.

Oct. 6

(from Staru's narrative)

I told Jane. "Jane, I'm looking for a bolt of lightning that belongs to me."

Jane looked very bewildered. "A bolt of lightning? You own a bolt of lightning?"

"Yes," I said. "Don't you?"

"No, but I'll help you look for it."

I jumped up. "You will?" asked I. "Right now?"

"Of course not!" laughed Jane. "We must wait until the next thunderstorm."

"Why?" In Planet, when I called, bolt and R's would come, whether it was raining or not.

"Because lightning only comes when it rains hard," said Jane. She stared at me. "Didn't you know that?"

"I guess not."

By sheer luck, a storm came only a mere week later. Jane and I rushed outside.

Jane and I watched. 5 thunder- and lightnings came, but at each one I shook my head.

On the sixth one, my wish was miraculously granted. A bolt of lightning flashed across the dark sky -- I knew it at once to be mine!

"My lightning!" I cried. I rushed towards where it had disappeared.

"Staru, come back!" cried Jane.

Tears streaming down my cheeks, I called,

"Come down, sweet bolt of lightning,
coming forth to carry me home--"

"Staru, come back!" shrieked Jane.

"Take me home--"

My lightning came down and struck the ground behind me, illuminating me. Then we were gone.

(Me again.)

Isn't that quite a story?

Oct. 5

I only had time to set these pictures of Mr. Davidson and Might Tango. I hope that someday I might be a famous equestrian.

I have a new friend. His name is Nathan and he's great-o.

Oct. 4

I found a lovely poem in Women's Day magazine. Isn't it lovely?

---> -->
Apology
by Laura Gilpin

You gave me your heart
like a polished apple
and being young
I bit into it,

letting my teeth
pierce the tight skin
while the juices
dripped down between
my fingers.

Forgive me.
It was delicious
and we were both
so young.

I'm going to send a copy to Lori. I think she'd like it.

I only have 23 Wildlife Stamps left. I hope I can get some more. But my finances are being stretched to the breaking point:

Yaba ($.?)
Larkspur (..)
Flicka (..)
Bike lock ($1.47)
Novel ($.?)
Midnight (..)
And countless other things.

If I ever get my books published, I'll buy trips to the poor countries and, with the excess money, I'll give it to the poor people. I'll start relief places so people can get food and shelter and medical care.

It's really not fair for White people to be rich and black, yellow, and brown people to be poor.

Oct. 3

Lori called today at 7:20. She said Allen-a-Dale and Will Scarlett and Robin were coming to see her soon.

I was changed, entirely. Completely swiveled around by the call. My heart is burning hot and I can barely keep the tears back. Life without Lori right down the way is hard.

Fury missed Lightning, she said. I didn't know Fury liked Lightning for anything but inflicting revenge on him.

I wonder if the Swinging B ranch should have cattle, too? I have several little models, but they are 5 calves and one big cow.

I'm going to get the Running stallion for Yaba, but I haven't decided on the color of Larkspur yet. I might make her gray, but I don't think there's a gray Thoroughbred mare. I think I should get the Grazing Mare.

Then there's Flicka. I don't think there are any chestnuts like her in the Breyer catalogue. Hold it! There's Lady Phase! Perfect!

Oct. 2

I went to South School today. Mr. P. is nice. I got a spelling test with pretty hard words.

The other day I found my secret place.

It's by the side of our house, under a little tree with big purple flowers.

I got a piece of wood and a peice of carpet for a seat. I put a board in the tree for a shelf, but there's nothing to put on it. I pinned an unfinished story about Staru up on the wall with cactus spines. It fell down.

I feel like I'm trapped here. Staru lives on a forest planet in another galaxy, and she has lots of hawks.

7:30

I wonder what Julie is doing. Maybe she fought, with the 7 musketeers, for the fort.

Darned watch! It's 8:00!

Oct. 1

I don't know what possessed me to leave you on the desk, diary!

Sept. 25

It's awful hot. I let Ozma get a suntan, on a blue handkerchief I found at the laundry. I found a string of pink pearls for her.

On Sessy Street there's a man who looks like he's sleeping on top of the Bay Bridge with cars going under him. I wonder how he got up there?

The packers came at about 10:00. I was really scared for Morning Star and Lady and White Arrow, but Mom said she'd seen the guys pack them and they were okay.

There are 14 boxes with my stuff in them.

Thunder was nearly aphixiated by the heat when he came home this afternoon. He stowed away in the baggage compartment of a plane from Iceland to S.F., and when he flew out he collapsed right in the path of an oncoming plane. He would have been killed if it weren't for the peregrines. They were flying over on their way back from Idaho and saw him. Chief Peregrine and Ulysses swooped down and plucked him out of the way.

Lightning is munching hay in the empty doll case. He is muttering about a worthless meal of moldy trash.

Sept. 24

So far everything's A.O.K. But if I don't earn $2.68 today, I won't be able to get Terrang.

There's one funny thing about him. In the 1976 catalogue Terrang's a beautiful black, but in the 1978 one he's chestnut. I wonder which one is real?

I've been wondering. Lady G. belongs to a set. I wonder if I should get Lady her real mate, the Running Stallion?

I'll get to sleep over with Lori on Tuesday. In the morning we'll go to Summer Beach. I predict a few tears.

Today I let all my hawks take a vacation. T went to Birdtown to see how things were going.

T and E went to Sequoia National Park.

Tt and his mate went to Alaska with the kids.

Thunder went to Iceland.

Chief Peregrine, Topaz, Ulysses, DS, and A went to their homeland, the Snake River Canyon.

P, L, D, the triplets, and Z went to Virginia.

Lady went to Carpinteria to visit Ed Durden, her former owner, and sail across the plains she knew so well.

Tomorrow the packers are coming. I'm curious, anxious and scared.

Sept. 23

7:30 A.M.

Last night I wrote down in my head the things I want.

moccasins
real bow and arrows

With these I can really be Staru. If I've got these by the time Lori comes to see me, we can do real bow-shooting!

Sept. 22, '78

My last day here. Boo!

3/8 x 1/5 x 10/15 x 4/9 = 1/45

That's one of the problems we had in math. Can you believe somebody slapping such a problem down on you?

Lori came today. We got a message from Robin Hood. Two sparrows brought it.

T and me are talking sign language. Nobody can understand it, not even deaf people.

I like playing Staru with Lori. In fact I like it so much that I feel like I don't belong in this word. I feel like I belong in Staru and Robin's world.

Sept. 21, '78

Well, hello, diary! This is my first day of having you.

Today my dear friend Julie and I built a new fort. We lugged a log up the hill and made a seat. We strung a piece of string between two pussy-willow trees to hang our sweaters on, but the boys broke it. It's terrible how boys like to hurt forts, especially girl's forts.

Julie did the impossible today. She finally broke it to me that I was beautiful! I'd never believed anybody who told me that before! It was as if a huge 2-ton boulder had been lifted off my heart. I cried.

Another boy came and started wrecking the fort next to us. T flew off my shoulder before I could stop him and in a half-second there was blood everywhere. And the boy didn't even notice!

T is the fiercest of all my hawks, even Lady.