The Blue Between the Clouds (3 page)

Esther was madder than a wet cat. She couldn't decide which one of us to tear into first. When she looked at Two Moons, he hit her in the face with a mud ball. It gave us the break we needed, and we were off. We ran across the field and through the henhouse. Esther was right behind us and scooped up eggs as she ran. The hens were squawkin' and flappin' at our heads. We burst out the other side and Esther hit Two Moons in the back with an egg. She can throw, too. She hit me in the leg before we reached the barn. That's where it happened. I turned to see where Esther was and tripped over a milk bucket. I reached out to catch myself, but all I could grab was air until I hit the front of the tractor.

Esther and Two Moons froze. They could see I was hurt. My head was bleedin' like crazy. Esther ran to me and held my head up. Two Moons found a rag and pressed it hard on my head to stop the bleedin'. I didn't feel much pain, but I was dizzy.

“We got to get you cleaned up 'fore Mama sees,” Esther said. “You know how she gets when she sees blood.”

“Can you walk?” Two Moons asked.

“I think so,” I said. But I was sure I couldn't. When I stood, I was so wobbly that I almost fell over. Esther and Two Moons caught me and helped me limp out of the barn toward the house.

“Let's go back around by the cellar,” Esther said to Two Moons. “I'll run in and get some water and towels so we can clean him up. We'll sneak him in and get a bandage on his head before Mama sees any blood.”

I suppose it would've worked if Ma wouldn't have come to the door right then to call us all to supper. She saw the three of us standin' there, covered with mud, and me with my head down and blood all over my shirt. It was more than she could stand.

“Oh, oh, oh my,” she gasped. Then she ran out into the snow in her house shoes, flappin' her arms and callin' my father.

“Tom, oh Tom. Oh, somebody!”

She kept on like that, callin' Pa, wanderin' in circles, breathin' through her mouth like she was going to drown. She patted herself on the forehead and stomped around until she lost both of her house shoes.

Esther and Two Moons helped me into the kitchen. I took off my muddy clothes and stood there in my underwear while Esther cleaned my face and cut. Then she poured iodine on it. I screamed and acted kind of like Ma while Esther called the doctor. Two Moons wrapped my head with gauze, and Esther went out and dragged Ma in out of the snow and made her some comfrey tea.

From the kitchen I could see Emmett gazin' out his window at the clouds that were moving north. I wished I were ridin' one of 'em about then, like it was a huge brahma bull ragin' over the mountains.

4

ME AND ICARUS

I guess you could say it was Miss Alexander that broke Two Moons' arm. See, the next day I was feelin' pretty good. I wasn't dizzy anymore, and I only had a slight headache. Ma thought it best that I go to school, get my mind off my head. I sort of wanted to go anyway; you know, show everybody my wound. I kind of thought I looked like the drummer in that one picture of the soldiers from the Revolutionary War. Miss Alexander put it up on the wall the first week of school when she talked about freedom. All the way to school that morning I walked with one stiff leg like I had a drum slung on my hip. I drummed on my leg and whistled “Yankee Doodle” until Esther flipped my backside with a piece of tube rubber. That girl ain't never gonna get married.

The schoolyard was like Main Street after the war. Everybody rushed up to see my head. Jimmy Kranz offered me a nickel if I would take off the bandage.

“Worth more than a nickel,” I said.

Then everybody wanted to see it. Two Moons collected the money and told the story of how it happened.

“Me and Matt was out after some bandit coyotes, them ones that been killin' off Hansens' chickens. Well anyway, we run into a whole pack of 'em in thick oak brush. Now, coyotes don't normally attack people, but seein' as they were trapped, I guess they thought it was their only way out. I picked off three of them, and Matt here shot one and clubbed one down with his rifle butt before he was throwed to the ground, where he hit his head.”

It wasn't exactly how I would've told it, but I had to go along.

“I shot three of the devils, Two Moons,” I said.

“That's right,” he said. “I forgot about that sickly one you shot first.”

Everybody was like they were in a trance, the way they get at the movie house. Two Moons had collected seventy-three cents and probably would've collected more if Esther wouldn't have started to laugh.

“Ahhh, tell 'em the real story, boys,” she said.

I glared at her like an angry bull, but she didn't pay me much attention.

“C'mon, Matt. Tell 'em how you and Two Moons here were really runnin' from me.”

The crowd gasped and turned quickly to Esther.

“You know,” she said. “Tell 'em how you sneaked in my room and were playin' with my dolls. How I caught you, and you tried to run away and fell down the stairs.”

Everybody busted out laughin'. They started pushin' me and Two Moons, and grabbed their money back. We swore right then that we would get Esther so bad she would remember it the rest of her life. Revenge was all we could think about for most of the day.

It wasn't until Miss Alexander started talkin' about Icarus that we cooled down.

You see, we were talkin' about Greek stories, mythology and all. And Icarus, he had this father named Daedalus. They both lived on this island way out in the sea. I suppose Daedalus got a bit tired of that island, 'cause he started thinkin' of ways to get off. Must've been before good ships and all. Anyway, he made these huge wings out of feathers and wax so he could come and go as he pleased. Well, he got older, and he wanted his son Icarus to feel the wonders of flight. So he passed along some wings and a little advice. “Don't go flyin' too close to the sun,” he said. “It's hot up there and the wax will melt. Your wings will fall apart and you'll drop faster than a plucked chicken.” Somethin' like that. Well, of course Icarus didn't listen. He got to flyin' around and the thrill overtook him, and he flew higher and higher until the sun melted the wax and he fell straight into the ocean and drowned.

You see, I figured the only way out of Thistle was to go to war, or to bury myself in a mine. “I ain't gonna spend the rest of my days in a cave,” I said to Two Moons after school. “And I sure don't feel like dyin' in someone else's country.”

Two Moons was quiet. He didn't talk much about himself and what he wanted to do. But I could tell he had somethin' to prove, I just wasn't sure what it was yet.

“It can't be so tough to make us a pair of wings,” I said to Two Moons. “It's got to be easier than makin' an airplane.”

“There are bad spirits in the sky,” Two Moons said.

“Bad spirits?” I said. “What are you talkin' about?”

“The gods made us all a place to live. To trespass the skies would be bad luck. We don't belong there,” Two Moons said.

“You sure changed your mind fast,” I said.

“I'm not afraid of bad spirits,” Two Moons said. “I know their medicine.”

“Well, don't get all worried about me,” I said. “I'm gonna fly outta here and I don't care what's up there. Are you comin' with me?”

Two Moons stared at me, then he looked at the sky.

“Yes,” he said.

We ran the rest of the way home and cleaned out the henhouse. We had three gunnysacks full of feathers when we were done, and both of our hands were bleedin' from bein' pecked by mad hens. Then we cut some willow branches and bent them into long loops. We covered these with bed sheets. Ma would've beat our backsides with a wooden spoon if she'd caught us. We melted all the candles we could find and poured the hot wax on the wings. Then we pushed feathers into the wax before it dried.

By then it was dark. We decided to wait until the next day when we could see where we were flyin'.

“I'm thinkin' we should stay kinda low tomorrow,” Two Moons said. “Just till we're sure everything works out.”

“Oh yeah,” I said. “We don't want to get close to that sun. Besides, it might be more effort than we think. We could get tuckered out pretty fast.”

“The spirits,” Two Moons said.

“Right,” I said. “We don't want to be in the air too long, just enough to get familiar, see how they treat us.”

We agreed that the first flight would be a short one, and that we wouldn't go showin' off until we were really good at it.

We were up early the next day. We hurried through breakfast and got on our way to school. I guess we were a little anxious to get home and get into the air. The hardest part was keepin' the whole thing a secret. We were so nice to Esther it made her nervous. But we had to be. If we got in a fight, we were liable to burst out in anger and tell her everything. Besides, we both knew deep down that we would get her back after we felt the wonders of flight.

I was thinkin' about all this when I looked up and saw a chicken hawk circlin' above us. He followed us all the way to school. I figured it was a good luck sign. I pointed him out to Two Moons. Two Moons smiled.

“Brother hawk is waitin' for us,” he said.

“What are you talkin' about?” Esther said.

“Nothin',” I said.

“You two better not have some fool ideas in your heads,” she said. “I'll throw you both in the holdin' pond. You know it too, don't you?”

“Yeah, we know it,” I said.

Well, we planned on keepin' everything a secret. You know, lay low all day, then sneak back to the barn unnoticed and go for a short flight before supper. That was before all the kids in the schoolyard crowded around us and asked us about Esther's dolls.

“We got better things to do,” I said.

“Like what?” they said.

“Like none of your business,” Two Moons said.

They all laughed. Then Jacob Kranz, Jimmy's older brother, said, “You got to get home and make some doll clothes?”

Most kids think they can get away with stuff like that. But most kids don't know Esther. She stepped in front of me and slugged him right in the stomach. Knocked the wind clean out of him. Everybody went silent, except fat Jacob. He kneeled down wheezin', tryin' to catch his breath.

“We got some flyin' to do!” I yelled.

Esther turned around sharply and looked at me as if I were Emmett. Two Moons kicked me in the backside.

“Well, they're gonna find out anyway,” I said to Two Moons. Then I turned to all of them.

“It just so happens that me and Two Moons made us a pair of wings like Icarus. We got 'em back at the barn and we're gonna go for a little flight today after school.”

Everybody was quiet. Even Esther.

Finally Jimmy Kranz spoke up. “Why don't you do it right now?” he said, coverin' up like a boxer when Esther gave him the evil eye.

I wasn't sure what to do then. I knew he was callin' my bluff so I had to show him everything.

“Fine,” I said. “Let's go.”

Now, Miss Alexander wasn't too friendly about us cuttin' class. One time Two Moons and me cut out and went fishin'. We just felt like goin' after some rainbow instead of bein' in school. We told Miss Alexander that too when we had to face the music. We sat there in her office the next day and told her that we just needed a day off, needed to relax. We thought for sure she'd understand. Mr. Pilkington was there too. We knew he wouldn't understand. He don't have any kids of his own to holler at so he come to school to do it. Unless of course your ma is there; then he's nicer than a big-city salesman. Well, he was madder than we thought he'd be, and Miss Alexander was a little ripe too. After she blew off a little steam she said somethin' really strange. She said, “You boys got lives of your own you haven't discovered yet. You're not ever going to find them if you keep cutting class. But if you don't want to come to school, that's your choice.” I haven't missed a day since, and neither has Two Moons. Except for that morning Jimmy Kranz called my bluff about the Icarus wings.

Pa would punish us for sure. Pile on the chores and make us feel like tomorrow would never come. Then there would be Mr. Pilkington. Maybe if I understood what he was sayin' I would feel worse, but he's got a way of ramblin' on like a crazy preacher, doesn't give you time to feel bad. Ma would hold back on the desserts for a month, we knew that. But it was Miss Alexander I kept thinkin' about. I wondered what I would lose by missin' school for a couple of hours.

It was a long walk back to the barn. There must've been thirty kids trailin' behind us. The sun was full up and the snow was all melted except for a few small piles in the shade. Esther walked between me and Two Moons. She had just saved me from a thumpin' and maybe she was worried I would think she loved me or somethin', so she poked and jabbed me all the way to the barn.

“You gonna kill yourself in front of all these people,” she said. “You gonna land on your head and talk baby gibberish the rest of your life.”

I didn't answer. I didn't want to start a fight right then 'cause I knew we would never get to the wings if I did. She knew it too. Maybe that was Esther's way of tellin' me that she really did love me, that she didn't want me gettin' hurt. I don't know. I guess I'll never understand Esther.

Finally, Esther gave up. She couldn't think of anything else to say, so she just mumbled and walked behind me, kickin' at my feet. We had to sneak around the back of the yard, behind Emmett's trucks. Emmett saw the long line of kids through his window and pulled the string of an imaginary train whistle. He smiled and waved to me as if I were the conductor of a passin' train.

We stopped at the back of the barn.

“You all go around to the front and have yourselves a seat,” I said. “Two Moons and me will go in and get the wings ready.”