- Fifteen years have gone by since the night of the fateful ball.
- Looking back, Leo still gets sad when he thinks of Stargirl leaving.
- Flashback time: A few weeks after Stargirl leaves, Leo goes by her house and sees that it is for sale and that nothing is in it.
- Stargirl doesn't even finish the school year. She just vanishes into thin air.
- He tries to get information from Archie about where she went, but poor old Archie doesn't have much information to give to him.
- Lonely Leo wants affirmation that she really existed, which Archie gives him. He also explains the rarity of "star people."
- By "star people" he means people that are so different that you can't really figure them out.
- Archie explains that we are all made of the same basic elements, the same ancient stuff. Even Barney the skull is made of it.
- He believes that every once in a while a person comes along who is more connected to these old elements, someone who is more connected to the past.
- Poor Leo has difficulty understanding all of this, but he feels like the explanation fits Stargirl's story.
- Archie also assures Leo that Stargirl really liked him. After all, she did give up her identity for a while to please him.
- Leo continues to attend the Loyal Order of the Stone Bone meetings at Archie's house, but they do not speak of Stargirl again for an entire year.
- Then, right before Leo leaves for college, Archie shows Leo Stargirl's office. It turns out that it was in a toolshed at his house.
- All the stuff he expected to see in her room was in the shed: tons of arts and crafts supplies, a phone book, a giant calendar with birthdays marked on it, and the scrapbook for Peter Sinkowitz, among other trinkets.
- There's even a filing cabinet that contains files on a ton of different people.
- So what does Leo do? He pulls out the file on him, of course. In it he finds clippings from the newspaper about him, candid photographs and a sheet of paper with a "likes" and "dislikes" heading.
- He remarks to Archie that she was like a spy, but Archie tells him it was a "lovely treason" (31.45).
- They walk out of the shed and into the light.