Heaven by Angela Johnson

Author:Angela Johnson [Johnson, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780689848285
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2013-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

Heaven is in a valley surrounded by farms and woods. There’s a million places to go if you want to be alone and all of them are within walking distance.

I walk through the kitchen, and Butchy is washing dishes. Pops and Momma are gone to work. I turn back toward the fridge and grab some grapes out of a bowl.

Butchy tosses soap bubbles at the window. He says, “What’s up?”

“Nothing.”

“What’s that?” he says, pointing at the cardboard box.

“Something I haven’t opened yet. Something Momma or Pops left in my room.”

“What is it?”

“It says ‘Baby Monna’ on the box.”

Butchy goes and sits at the kitchen table and looks scared. “You gonna open it now?”

Butchy hasn’t been saying too much since I found him looking for his birth certificate in Momma and Pop’s room. When he’s around me he smiles. He always starts to say things to me but in the end always says, “Never mind.”

He sits at the table banging a spoon. He’s got his knee pads on already. He’s been living on his board a whole lot more these days.

I saw him yesterday hiking up by Caveman Hill.

I went there once with him and his friends. Skinny boys with long shirts and baggy khakis. All of them looking for the perfect wave.

Caveman Hill will never be the ocean, but it slopes and dips through old twisted trees and burnt-out fields. Any minute you think you might see dinosaurs coming out of the dark night, getting in the way of the skinny boys on flying wheels.

I take a seat beside Butchy and shake my head. “I’m not opening anything now.”

“What do you think is in there?”

I lay my head down on the table and close my eyes.

“You don’t have to talk about it, Marley. I mean, after they told me, nobody’s saying anything.”

“It’s all changed now. I still love you, but you aren’t my brother. And at least if they’d lied to you, I’d still feel the same about you, because then you’d be going through these changes, too.”

Butchy gets up, lets all the water out of the sink, and turns on the radio. He picks up the skateboard leaning against the pantry door and stands up on it.

He rolls out the back door, then stops. “We’ll always be who we were to each other.” Then he’s gone to find the perfect wave.

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