After the River the Sun by Dia Calhoun

Author:Dia Calhoun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Chapter Twenty-Three

Later that afternoon,

his hands scraped and his muscles sore,

Eckhart was walking down the canyon

when he saw Eva coming up.

“I’m building a tower,” he told her,

“up above the old homestead.”

Eva’s eyes turned sparkly. “What fun!

What a fine and noble thing to do.”

Eckhart almost told her

about Hell’s Canyon,

but something, as always,

held him back.

What if she didn’t want

to be friends anymore

once she learned

what a coward he’d been?

Eva was the only friend he had.

So he only said,

“It’s a monument to my parents.”

“Gramercy!” she exclaimed. “Can I help?”

He thought that over,

and then shook his head.

“I think I should do it alone.”

Eva looked quickly away,

hiding her face,

and plucked a wild rose from a bush.

“I understand,” she said softly,

twirling the blossom in her fingers

as though it were a tiny umbrella.

“When,” she added, “are you going to ask

your uncle about the trial?”

This wasn’t the first time

she had asked him this.

“I don’t know,” Eckhart said,

his eyes sliding away from her.

“But,” she persisted,

“you have to know the terms of the trial.

So you can do whatever you need to—

to stay here.”

Eckhart kicked a pine cone. “Don’t you think

it’s braver not to ask?”

“No.” Eva shook her head. “I don’t.

I think that’s just pretending to be brave

when you’re really just afraid to ask.”

Eckhart felt his face flush red,

felt his tongue twist

into a bolt of lightning.

“Don’t call me a coward!” he shouted.

He turned and ran down the canyon.

“Eckhart!” she called.

“That’s not what I meant!”

But Eckhart raced

down the path

under the aspens and pines,

raced

until he was panting for breath.

When he reached the deer fence

behind Sunrise Orchard,

he thought he might slip

through the gate

without even opening it,

because he felt about three inches high.

“She’s wrong,” he said aloud.

“Just plain wrong.”

By the time Eckhart reached the house,

his heart had stopped pounding.

Uncle Al and Mr. Salinas stood on the deck.

Even in the warmth of May,

Mr. Salinas wore something wrapped

around and around his big neck—

a blue bandana.

“Let me get this straight, Joe,”

Uncle Al was saying to Mr. Salinas.

“You want me to buy

your Honeycrisp knip-booms?”

“That’s right,” Mr. Salinas said.

“What are knip-booms?” Eckhart asked.

Annoyed, Uncle Al glanced at him and said,

“A knip-boom is a two-year-old tree

about six feet tall with lots of branches.

Bred for high-density planting.”

Eckhart blinked.

Mr. Salinas smiled at him,

then turned back to Uncle Al.

“When I ordered the knip-booms last fall,

I didn’t know I’d be selling my place.

Now that you’ve got the orchard cleaned up,

you need some trees to plant.

I’ll give you a good deal, Al.”

Uncle Al stared over the field

he and Eckhart had cleared.

Mr. Salinas added, “Honeycrisp apples

are bringing a great return, Al.”

“That’s so,” said Uncle Al.

“But it’s years until I’d have a crop.

And a lot of work—

putting in the irrigation pipes,

planting the trees,

building the trellises . . .”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, Joe.”

Mr. Salinas clapped one hand

on Eckhart’s shoulder.

“You have this fine young fellow here

to help you. Wouldn’t you like

to see an orchard thriving

on this place again, Eckhart?”

Eckhart nodded. “Yes.”

Uncle Al looked at him sharply. “You would?”

“Sure. I like all the trees on Eva’s farm.

I was sort of wishing

we had an orchard too.”

“It means a lot of work,” Uncle Al said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.