Orbiting Jupiter

by Gary D. Schmidt

Then he tried to kill her.

“He’s not like that,” I said.

“Jupiter,” Joseph said.

“I always know where Jupiter is,” he said.

you can tell a whole lot about someone from the way cows are around him.

Joseph looked up at the driver, then started to jump up and down.

until suddenly it stopped, put its head down on the ice, slid into the dark water, and was gone.

:(

“Maddie liked to skate,” he said.

“I guess you didn’t hear everything, Haskell.”

and I wondered if he was skating in the silver moonlight with Maddie.

“I have to see Jupiter. Will you help me?”

Joseph walked seven miles to see her on the stormy, icy Friday afterward.

And she held his arm and looked at Jupiter and she said, “Mine too—now.”

that his son might face criminal charges.

Her name was Jupiter Joyce.

He was looking for Jupiter in the cold and the dark.

But even so, when Joseph saw me, he shook his head. He wanted me out of there.

“I’ve seen what happens to yellow dogs,” I said. “It was three against one.”

“No one’s ever had my back before. Except Maddie. Thanks.”

Mr. D’Ulney and Mrs. Halloway were just getting out of a car.

Coach Swieteck was pulling up in his van.

They came all four days of Joseph’s suspension. All four days, so he wouldn’t have to make up those classes in January.

“Don’t let them get behind you, ever,” he said.

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.

“Jupiter would love this,” he said.

“I think it all has to be true, or none of it,” he said.

“Maybe angels aren’t always meant to stop bad things.” “So what good are they?” “To be with us when bad things happen.”

Joseph was smiling and laughing.

You know what happened when Mr. Brook put his hand on Joseph’s back? Joseph flinched.

:(

The account is in your name.

Sometimes it’s like that. You know something good is coming, and even though it’s not even close yet, still, just knowing it’s coming is enough to make you snort and nicker.

“He’s going to find Jupiter,” I said.

And I wondered if Joseph knew that what he wanted, he couldn’t have.

when the snow finally stopped and Jupiter came out, bright bright bright.

“We’re going down to Brunswick,” she said.

“I have his back,” I said.

“And he loves her. He’ll always love her, even if she doesn’t know him.”

Standing with his arms crossed as if he’d wait until the end of the world. Which he probably would.

“What are you doing here?” he said. “Looking for you,” I said.

He got in the car and leaned forward. “Look at this,” he said, and showed me Jupiter.

“Someday, Jupiter would love to do this,” said Joseph.

“Have I told you about the first time Maddie and I danced?” said Joseph. “Yes,” I said. “It was great,” he said.

it began to feel as if it had always been like this, like it would always be like this,

And in his hand—I just saw it for a second—the blue metal of a gun.

He screamed at his father like something had ripped deep inside him.

The funeral service for Joseph was three days later.

no:(

“Greater love hath

no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

I had his back. And he had mine. That’s what greater love is.

In the back seat was Jupiter.