Skies Like These (15 page)

Jade folded the papers lengthwise. “Don't be. Wherever he is, I'm sure he's fine.”

“How can he be fine when he's lost everything he's ever dreamed of? When he's lost his very self?”

“Has he?” Jade asked.

“We're not the family he needed us to be.” Mrs. Parker looked down the street, her eyes glazed over. “Poor child,” she whispered so Jade could barely hear.

Jade had a thought. “I might know where he is.”

Both Parkers perked up at that. “Where?” they asked in unison.

“Don't worry.” Jade started down the walkway. “I'll find him.”

Mr. Parker hollered after her, “And bring him home or call us if you do.”

“I will,” Jade said. “I promise.”

 

30

Jade pressed her face against the glass of the County Hardware store. She looked in every angle of window and banged on both the front and back doors, hollering out Roy's name.

He wasn't there.

She sat on the curb, under the words
Summer is here!
on the window and tried to think of where he could have gone or how he must be feeling. Eventually she found herself walking down the street toward the Hammer and Nail.

She saw his boots first, dangling from a high branch in the tree across the street from Farley's store.

“Hey,” she said, looking into the tree.

Roy didn't answer. He just kept swinging his feet.

“You gonna make me climb up there?”

Nothing.

“Fine.” Jade positioned her shoe on the knothole and hoisted herself up. “Because I'm a pro at this.”

Roy let out a soft huff.

“I am! I had an amazing teacher.”

Another huff.

She kept her focus on him, double-checking each foothold. “A pain in the neck, but still amazing.”

As she got closer, she noticed him wipe his cheek with his palm.

“Are you impressed?” she said when she reached the thick branch and sat next to him.

Roy shrugged. Jade started swinging her legs in unison with her friend. She didn't look over at him and she didn't say anything for the longest time. Finally, she found her words. “I saw the papers.” She knew to let that sink in for a minute before adding, “Does it matter?”

Roy turned to Jade with a baffled look. “Detroit?” he said, as if it was the most bizarre place in the world. “I can't believe it's true.”

Jade decided to try a different approach. “I heard you didn't go to Farley's today. Did you know they were shoeing horses?”

“Does
that
matter?”

“It does to the Roy I know. To the Roy who doesn't care what people think about him and who has dreams bigger than anyone I've ever met. I like that Roy.”

Another huff, this one a little sharper.

Jade looked across the street. The Hammer and Nail's parking lot was half full and shoppers were coming and going at a pretty regular pace. “Guess they found the fish.”

“Doesn't matter,” Roy said. “I've moved on to bigger and better plans.”

“Like?”

“Like selling Farley's junk on eBay. I've been doing some research and it turns out you were right. He's got some really valuable pieces. That bronco statue was made by this guy named Remington and is worth about thirty-five.”

“Hundred?”

“Thousand,” Roy said. He tugged a leaf from one of the branches and began shredding it. “Thirty-five thousand smackeroos. If I can pull it off, it'd be a job for the record books.”

“Stealing from Farley won't make you more of a cowboy.”

Roy was dismissive. “You don't know anything.”

“I know you're not a criminal, which is what taking that statue will make you. How would you even explain getting that kind of money to your parents? There's got to be a better way to help them. What about your entry for the cowboy-poetry contest? Aunt Elise says your mom is happy as a pig in mud to be working with you.” Jade forced a laugh, trying to lighten the mood. “Who says things like that besides Aunt Elise?”

“It's over,” Roy said.

“No it's not. It's in four days and we're counting on you. How close are you and your mom to being finished?”

“I said I'm not doing it.” Roy spit the words out like darts.

“You're giving up?” Jade struggled against her frustration. She would never get through to Roy if she gave in to her impulse to start yelling. “Listen,” she said, soft and easy, “you are more than a piece of paper. You can be anything you choose and it doesn't come from outside of you. It comes from here.” She placed her pointer finger on his heart. “Of all the people I know, I think you'd be the one to understand that.”

“You must not know many people then,” Roy mumbled.

That was it. The irritation simmered up and spilled out of her mouth. “You need to get over yourself.”

Roy turned his head to the side and wiped his cheek again. He said nothing.

Jade let out an annoyed breath and started climbing down the tree, grumbling the entire way. When she reached the ground, she put her fists on her hips and hollered up at Roy. “Butch Cassidy would never quit like that!”

Roy shot back, “That's fine because I'm not related to him. I'm from a line of stupid builders in Detroit!” He ran his forearm along his runny nose and looked over to Farley's store again. “You don't get it,” he said. “It hurts.”

All the frustration drained out of Jade. “I know it does,” she said. “And you have a choice.” She thought she could see Roy's jaw flinch as he recognized his own words. “You can cowboy up and do the right thing by helping your mom. Or you can just lie there and bleed.”

 

31

Jade went to Roy's house and told his parents where he was, and then retraced her route from the morning so she could take a long walk before returning to the dog ranch. She passed the YMCA and the park where the festival was shaping up. She zigzagged down a side street she knew would take her by the Wells Fargo bank. She strolled past the wide front yards that spread out from the center of town, waving at Angelo in his rocker, and she felt an overwhelming relief as she came up to Aunt Elise's house and saw Astro's broad black nose prodding out from a square of the chain-link fence.

He politely stepped back, allowing her to open the gate. “Hey, boy,” she said, running a hand along his back.

Aunt Elise came down the driveway. “How are you?” She asked it in a way that let Jade know the Parkers must have called and explained what had happened.

“I'm okay.”

Aunt Elise guided Jade across the yard and into the house. “Do you want to talk?” Aunt Elise said.

“No. I think I'll go lie down for a while.”

“That's fine.”

*   *   *

When Aunt Elise called Jade for dinner, she said, “I hope you're hungry. I made meatballs.”

“Buffalo?” Jade asked.

“Sorry,” Aunt Elise said, pulling out a kitchen chair and offering it to Jade. “I was out of buffalo so I went with ostrich.”

“You're kidding, right?”

Aunt Elise smiled. “Yes, I'm kidding. You're going to have to settle for boring old beef tonight. But I'm fairly certain I ruined the rice—if that helps at all.” She reached over and turned on the corner fan, sending a whirling breeze to ruffle the stars and planets overhead. Jade knew it was in honor of Roy's heartache. “One scoop or two?” Aunt Elise was dipping a ladle into the Crock-Pot of meatballs and sauce.

Jade thought of how much her aunt's cooking had improved over the past few weeks. “Two.”

They ate dinner without a word, the glittered and bright art twisting above them. When the last plate was washed and the counters had been wiped down, Aunt Elise asked, “So what's your plan?”

“You expect me to make this better for Roy?”

“Who else?”

Jade hung up the dish towel she was using and went outside to think about the situation. She crossed the backyard, followed by a line of dogs. She ran her fingers through the long grass, kicked some rocks, and peered up into the sky. Before long, she found herself under the rumpled oak by the creek bed. Astro nudged his head up under her arm.

“Got any ideas, boy?” Jade asked, sitting down on the grassy slope.

Astro
harrumphed
and sat down next to her. The other dogs followed suit, tongues wagging in the evening heat.

Jade noticed some leftover sticks and string off to the side, where her aunt had left them a couple of days before. Without thought, she took the sticks and began twisting them into a triangle. Astro pushed out his front paws, lay down, and looked at Jade with his dark watery eyes as if to say,
Tell me all about it.

“Why did he have to send away for his genealogy?” she began, working her boat. “He was plenty happy living with his imaginary ancestors. Why did he have to go and ruin it?”

Astro kept his eyes fixed on Jade and gave the smallest nod.

“Your real life is never as good as what your imagination can create,” Jade said, and, as she did, Astro puffed out a heavy breath and shook his head sharply.

Jade pressed her lips together. “Are you disagreeing with me?” As if to test her theory, she said it again. “Your real life is never as good as what your imagination can create.”

Astro shook his head once more. Sharp and decisive. Full of surety.

Jade didn't know what to think about that. She finished her boat, inched down to the creek that was now just a trickle, and dropped it in. “This one is yours,” she said to Roy. “You've got to let that burden go.” The sticks moved slowly, but eventually worked their way down and out of sight. Jade pulled her knees up, crossed her arms, and rested her chin.

Lobo waddled to her side, teeth jutting up over his lip. Jade tugged on his stumpy tail and tried to keep thinking about how to help Roy. Nothing was coming to mind.

Dusty evening melted into twilight before Jade gave up and went back into the house. When she came through the door, Aunt Elise looked at her with a hopeful expression.

Jade shook her head. “There's nothing we can do. I told him he was more than a stack of papers. I even floated a stick boat down the creek for him.”

“You can't float someone else's worries away.”

“I'm at a loss.”

Aunt Elise put aside her book and stood up. “Let's ask the stars.”

Jade loved her aunt. She had come to appreciate—even enjoy—her eccentricities over the past two weeks. But Jade was also a realist. She knew they had run into a brick wall and Roy had to figure out the situation for himself. “It's hopeless,” she said.

“It's never hopeless. You're just not listening.”

“Listening to what?”

Aunt Elise lowered her voice. “The promptings.”

Jade started to walk away, but Aunt Elise grabbed her arm. “Let's go listen together.” Aunt Elise pulled Jade back through the kitchen, out the door, and to the ladder.

“I don't think that—” Jade began to protest.

Aunt Elise raised a finger to her lips and then pointed to her ear as if to say
, No talking, just listening
.

Jade clamped her mouth shut and followed her aunt onto the roof. She thought the idea was absurd, but she still followed.

The evening was deepening. A sliver of moon hung over the Tetons in the distance and a patchwork of black clouds filled the sky.

“I doubt we'll see many stars tonight,” Jade said, looking at those clouds.

Aunt Elise did the finger-to-her-mouth-and-then-ear thing again.

Jade stretched out on a beach lounger and waited as night fully eased over the valley. Aunt Elise was on the lounger to Jade's left. After about an hour of lying in the dark, Jade said, “How long are we going to stay up here?”

“For as long as it takes,” Aunt Elise whispered. “Are you thinking about possibilities?”

Jade had to admit she wasn't. She had been watching the occasional faint star shining through the clouds and thinking about how much time had passed. It had been a long hour, but it was clear her aunt was in no hurry to go anywhere, so Jade kept watching the sky.

To pass the time, she began revisiting her day—the festival trucks lined up downtown and the banners draped across the streets. Sandy and her smug confidence about winning the poetry contest again. She thought about the panic in Mrs. Parker's face when she ran out to meet Jade and the miserable look in Mr. Parker's eyes when he handed her that stack of genealogy papers. How he knew his son was hurting.

It all played out in her head.

Finally, she thought about sitting on the creek bed and wishing away Roy's sorrow with a simple triangle of sticks. How Astro had looked at her and seemed to understand every word she said. How he had even disagreed with her, or at least gave that impression.

Astro.

That loving beast.

Jade breathed in the night air and thought about how much she adored that dog.

And in those moments of thought about genealogy papers and heartache and Astro, Jade's answer came.

It nearly took her breath away, the idea was so clear and perfect.

“I know what we need to do,” she said, sitting up, filled with light and wonder, and amazement that Aunt Elise's listening plan had actually worked. A laugh bubbled out. “I do! I know exactly what Roy needs.”

Aunt Elise reached over. “See?” she said. “The stars always answer.”

 

32

Jade needed to speak to Roy's parents alone, but that wasn't a problem. When she went over the following day, she learned he had shut himself up in his bedroom and refused to come out—even when his mom made her out-of-this-world cinnamon rolls.

“We'll visit in the front yard,” Mrs. Parker said, wanting to be certain of their privacy.

Once they were a ways from the house, Jade began to explain her plan. “Mr. Parker, how much do you know about your family history?”