Orbiting Jupiter

by Gary D. Schmidt

How they could be quiet with each other. How holding her hand warmed everything in him. How he sometimes still felt her hand. I guess that night at the pond, while my father and mother and I got colder and colder listening to Joseph, I guess that night unfroze him.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And that’s when I started crying. Crying like a kindergarten kid in front of everyone. Crying because Joseph wasn’t just my friend. I had his back. And he had mine. That’s what greater love is.