The Blue Between the Clouds Read online

  “Try to put us in the reservoir!” Two Moons shouted. Then he threw the piece of gold into the air and looked right at the sun.

  I pulled up on the stick and it came off right in my hand. I could see the reservoir just ahead of us. We were goin’ down fast. I didn’t know if we were goin’ to make it.

  “We’ll always be brothers!” Two Moons shouted.

  Before we hit the rocky shore, we rose just enough to make it to the water. I swear it was the gods that lifted us. We flipped on our side and skittered across the water like a flat stone.

  That’s about all I remember. Two Moons had to tell me what happened afterwards ’cause I almost drowned. When I woke up, I had a terrible headache from hittin’ my head. Everything was blurry, like wakin’ up with a fever. I remember Two Moons holdin’ my head up and old Simmons leanin’ over me. For a minute it was like the whole thing never happened, like we were still fishin’ with the old guy. But then I came to and sat up.

  You see, old Simmons was up to Salt Creek Reservoir fishin’. He saw the whole thing. Now, I know Simmons is deathly afraid of water and won’t never swim. But Two Moons tells me he jumped in with a rope around his waist and fished me out of the wreckage. Made me think of that day at the pond when we found the grave of his son; you know, that small cross in the ground. I guess old Simmons didn’t want another cross clutterin’ up his property.

  We sat for a long time in Simmons’ car, just watchin’ the water where the plane sunk. Nobody really said much. After a bit, Pa drove up in his pickup with Claudine, Ma, and Emmett. Pa picked me out of the car with one hand like I was a rabbit. His whole body was shakin’. He held me so tight I couldn’t breathe. Then he did the same to Two Moons. His face stayed all worried like for a long time, a couple days at least. Poor Claudine didn’t stop bawlin’ the whole time we were at the reservoir, and Ma fluttered around huggin’ everybody. We stayed there all day long, throwin’ stones and talkin’. I think Pa got in some trouble for not showin’ up at the mine that day, but he said it was all right. Old Simmons had his fishin’ stuff there in his car, so he caught us some lunch. He and Emmett became friends that day and have gone fishin’ most days since.

  ’Long about dark we decided we couldn’t put it off much longer. Pa loaded Two Moons into the truck with Claudine and Emmett. Emmett would see them back to the house, and then Two Moons would leave forever.

  Two Moons stood with his back to me, starin’ up at the stars. The moon was out full and a gust of wind blew hard, then died. I didn’t know what to do; I just stood there shakin’ like I was cold. I climbed up in the back of the truck and stood beside Two Moons.

  “It ain’t gonna be easy, you know,” I said. “Flyin’ and all without you.”

  “I don’t suppose you’ll be doin’ much flyin’,” Two Moons said.

  “Yeah, bad spirits.”

  Two Moons laughed. “Bad spirits. Bad medicine,” he said.

  “No,” I said. “I’d do it again if we could get away with it.”

  “S’pose I would too,” Two Moons said.

  “It ain’t never gonna be the same,” I said.

  Two Moons turned to me then and hugged me like a brother. Then we both looked up at the stars again, tryin’ to think of somethin’ else to say.

  “Do you s’pose it’ll be a different moon in Bozeman?” I asked.

  “We’ll see,” Two Moons said.

  We laughed then, and I climbed down from the truck. Pa climbed in and held Two Moons like a son.

  “We’re gonna miss you, boy,” he said.

  Emmett nodded and started the truck. Claudine climbed in; she was still blubberin’. That woman cries more than anybody I ever knew.

  “It ain’t never gonna be the same,” I said again.

  “There’s blue between them clouds,” Two Moons said.

  I smiled. Pa and old Simmons looked to the sky like it was gonna rain, but it was clear as glass. The stars were small holes in the night, and the moon looked like the end of a long tunnel, a mine shaft where it ends.

  The truck drove away and we waved to Two Moons long after he was gone.

  “Pa,” I said while we were walkin’ home. “I guess I done wrong makin’ you and Ma worry and all.”

  “Yes, son,” he said.

  “You ’bout made us sick with worry,” Ma said.

  “Well, I been a little worried myself. I guess I don’t want to spend the rest of my days in the mine.”

  Pa laughed then.

  “I don’t think you’re cut out for the mines, son,” he said. “But you do much more flyin’ and you’re gonna put me in my grave.”

  “I won’t, Pa,” I said.

  Just then, we heard a flock of birds take flight from the treetops. It startled us and I was afraid for Two Moons at first, but as they got farther away, it didn’t sound like birds. It was more like angels flyin’ up to heaven.

  About the Author

  Stephen Wunderli lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he is the creative director for a small advertising agency. The Blue Between the Clouds is his first book for young readers.

  Henry Holt and Company, Inc.

  Publishers since 1866

  115 West 18th Street

  New York, New York 10011

  Copyright © 1992 by Stephen Wunderli

  All rights reserved.

  Published in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd., 195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario L3R 4T8.

  eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].

  ISBN 0-8050-1772-0 (hardcover)

  ISBN 0-8050-4819-7 (paperback)

  First published in hardcover in 1992

  by Henry Holt and Company, Inc.

  First paperback edition, 1996

  eISBN 9781466885929

  First eBook edition: October 2014