Chasing Jupiter by Rachel Coker

Author:Rachel Coker [Coker, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780310732983
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2012-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

It was just after twelve o’clock, and the sun was already making my skin melt and my dress stick to my back. I fanned myself with a napkin I’d found lying around and squinted down the road. No sign of Frank.

Cliff was sitting on the ground with a pad of paper and a pen. From time to time, he’d hold it up and show me what he was working on. It was usually an elaborate spaceship of some kind.

“Peter Pan is going to be my copilot,” he said out loud, furiously coloring in the sparks beneath the rocket. He glanced up and frowned. “Or would it be co-astronaut? Are astronauts called pilots sometimes?”

“I don’t know.” I pressed my lips together and looked again toward the direction of Frank’s house. Nothing.

We could technically head back into the house anytime we wanted. We’d been selling pies since nine, and we only had one left. Plus, we had agreed in the beginning that we wouldn’t stay out too long in the heat. Georgia afternoon heat waves can be killers.

But Frank hadn’t showed up yet. It didn’t make any sense. He was always there by nine. Ten, at the latest. Here it was quarter past twelve and no sign of him.

I squirmed in my seat and stared at the pie sitting in front of me. Flaky bits of crust clung to the red gingham tablecloth covering the stand. I scraped a bit of peach goop off the side of the pie and stuck my finger into my mouth. A weird mixture of salty sweat and sticky sugar.

Maybe he found out about my conversation with Mrs. Greene last Friday. I racked my brain to think if I’d seen him since then. I hadn’t. He’d left the party saying something about a boating trip his family was taking this week, but he’d assured me that he’d be back in time to sell pies today. That was eight days ago. What if someone told him since then about what I said?

Who else would know? That was a comforting thought. No one else was nearby, right? There was no way he would know. It was between me and Mrs. Greene.

There was a loud ripping sound as Cliff tore his picture off of the pad of paper and handed it to me. “Here you go! We can put this by the sale sign. Then, if anyone comes, I can explain to them about how this is Peter Pan and this is Captain Cliff and we’re going to Jupiter together.”

But if he didn’t know, why else would he not come? I scratched at a bug bite on my leg.

Maybe Frank was getting tired of us.

It made sense, in a way. It’s not like we were the most stimulating people to be around. Cliff was in some kind of delusional world ninety percent of the time, referring to himself in third person and chastising me in a weird mixture of English and Spanish. And I certainly wasn’t as pretty or interesting as Juli.

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