Friendship

“That one looks like a ship,” I say, pointing my finger to a large cloud. I can almost see Captain Hook swaggering on the deck, but then my fantasy just evaporates into another fat cloud. I turn my head and see a herd of elephants parading through the sky. They stampede through the clouds, and I say nothing, waiting for them to disappear into a daydream. I imagine the sun shining on the elephants in Africa. “Eliza?” Jamie asks, breaking my trance. “What? Sorry… wasn’t listening,” I say. “We noticed,” Hazen snorts. “Hey now!” I say, sitting up. “You are so out of it, Liza.” “Speak for yourself,” I shoot back to Hazen. “Look!” Jamie says, breaking our friendly bickering. Two huge clouds are going toward each other. I’m confused. The wind should be pushing them in the same direction. “They’re on different planes,” explains Jamie. “Thank you for enlightening us, boy super-genius,” Hazen says, but I marvel at the clouds as they hover above us, going toward each other faster than the average clouds. But when the two clouds meet, nothing happens. They just go by. Are we like that? Do we not even know it when something incredible just passes us by? “Huh,” is all I have to say. We all lie back down, staining the backs of our shirts with wet grass, to watch the clouds. Are we like that? Do we not even know it when something incredible just passes us by? “This is what summer is meant to be,” says Hazen lazily. I nod wholeheartedly. “Yeah,” agrees Jamie. “Hey, look! That one looks like an E,” he says. “Yeah, it does,” I say. “I wonder if the cloud gods are trying to tell me something?” I wiggle my eyebrows, and Hazen cracks up. “Let’s go!” Hazen says, jumping up. I follow her, knowing exactly what she means. “Where are we supposed to go?” asks Jamie, not yet caught on. “Anywhere! Everywhere!” I say, and start running. Hazen flies by me. Jamie soon catches up. We sprint through the infinity of green fields. My feet get covered in dewy mowed grass, but who cares? I run with the wind. With the ground beneath my feet, and the sun shining for us high above. Something about this carefree feeling is better than anything else. When school starts, these times are gone, so I savor the thundering noise of my feet hitting the ground, and the wind pushing my hair into my face, and sun hurting my eyes. The three of us run until we collapse. My heart is beating way too fast, but I’m still in energy mode. “Chicken,” I say. “Low,” Jamie responds immediately. “Tree!” I shout. It is my favorite game. “Leaf.” “Alphabet.” “Bog.” “Flame!” “Stare.” I wonder how long this game could go. It is nothing. You shout words until someone pauses. But it is the best game in the entire world. “Um, guys, what’s going on?” asks Hazen. Jamie and I keep shouting. Finally I point to Hazen, and say one word. “You.” And just like that, she has joined the endless game. After a while Jamie stops, and Hazen drains out, too. Now I am the only one screaming. I must sound like a lunatic. One last word. “Champion!” I yell, laughing. “Hey, look over there!” says Hazen. A huge rock bulges out in the meadow. It is covered in ivy, moss, and prickles, and surrounded by high grass filled with thorns and milkweed. “Let’s climb it!” I say. Jamie and Hazen look reluctant. “Oh c’mon!” Hazen follows me, but Jamie stays. “Please, Jamie?” He shakes his head. “No prickles for me,” he says. “Fine,” says Hazen, and we jog over to the unmowed weeds around the rock. “OK, here we go,” I say, and start fighting my way through the jungle that reaches my belly button. “Ow!” My first thorn—with many to follow, I’m sure—scratches my leg. I hear an almost responding “Ow!” behind me from Hazen. We forge on. When we’re halfway there, I hear a voice not belonging to Hazen. “Ouch!” “Jamie!” I turn. “Thanks for coming.” We wait for him to catch up, and then continue. After many prickles, scratches, and pauses for tick checks, we reach the top. I look around the rock. I see the same things but from a higher perspective. “Well, this is a disappointment,” Hazen says. I kind of agree with her, but don’t want to admit it. “It’s cool,” says Jamie. “Look at the mountains!” Hazen says. They seem to have risen out from the horizon. The clouds around them are pinkish from the reflected sun. “Wow.” “Wow wow,” I say. “Let’s go,” says Jamie. “OK,” I say. “Wasted effort…” “Your idea,” points out Hazen. “Fine. Last one down is a wasted effort!” I say, already sprinting through the thorns. They ignore me, slowly picking their way through the prickles. When they reach the bottom, we compare scratches. “Thank God for long shorts,” says Hazen. “Yeah,” says Jamie. I look at my shorter shorts and notice I have twice as many scratches as each of them. “Oh well,” I sigh. We stand in silence. “Whadda you want to do now?” asks Jamie. “Blah,” says Hazen, a twinkle in her eye, and the game starts up again. We shout and scream, and act like little kids. How nice it is to pretend, just for one day, that we’ve gone back in time, and there is nothing more important in the world than us having fun. Carefree. If you know that there is reason to care, then there is no such thing as being free of that reason. Maybe that’s why it’s impossible to really pretend to be young again, back when you didn’t know that reason existed. After a while we are back on the grass above Hazen’s house again. I have one last favor to ask of this perfect carefree day. I stand up and start spinning in circles, just like

Niki scowled. She clutched the rumpled picture of her best friend, Claire, as she trudged up the many stairs. I don’t care if this is a famous place, she thought angrily. It doesn’t change the fact that they made me move to Ireland and leave Claire behind in Wisconsin. Niki grumpily followed her parents up the never-ending flight of stairs leading to the Cliffs of Moher. Niki’s mother glanced back at Niki and sighed. Her daughter wore the same pouting look she had been wearing ever since they moved to Ireland. There were so many beautiful sights in Ireland, and her daughter wouldn’t see any of it. She was stuck on the fact that she wouldn’t see Claire until Christmas, six months away. As Niki continued to climb the seemingly never-ending stairs, the wind began to get stronger. When she reached the top, panting, she gasped in spite of herself. This was the most amazing thing she had ever seen. The land curved in, off to her left, and then curved out again; so she was looking across the water to the cliffs themselves. They rose majestically from the crashing waves and misty air. They were lined up in a row, so where one cliff ended, another one began. Then the wind soared, carrying the picture high into the sky Niki could hear the waves crashing far below. The wind came rushing in from the ocean, curving around the land to slam into her. The wind was so fierce she was yanked and shoved back and forth. She had to fight not to get blown over as she mounted the final steps. Ahead, there was a sturdy stone castle where her parents stood. She made her way slowly to them, fighting the wind every step of the way. “It’s… I didn’t know it would be like this!” she shouted; but the wind tore the words from her mouth. She just grinned at her parents instead. Niki caught her breath in a sheltered area where the castle protected her from the strong winds. After a moment, she headed out, going around the corner of the castle. Then she was hit by the most powerful wind yet. She held her arms out to the side and leaned into the wind. It tore at her like a wild animal. The wind whipped her hair across her face and made her eyes water. This wind gave her a feeling of excitement and exhilaration that she had never felt before. She closed her eyes and leaned even more into the wind. She imagined herself flying free, soaring up, up, up… she felt calm in a way she couldn’t explain. She had been filled with millions of different emotions since moving here: excitement, anger, sorrow; but now she was feeling strangely free. Suddenly, the picture of Claire, still in her hand, was torn from her grasp by the gusts of wind. She opened her eyes and the feeling of calm disappeared. “No!” she cried. She tried to run and catch the picture but the wind held her back. She watched helplessly as the wind tossed the picture back and forth, up and down, left and right. Then the wind soared, carrying the picture high into the sky. Then it plunged down, down, closer and closer to the crashing waves. Niki stared as the picture disappeared into the swirling water. *          *          * So where do you want to go tomorrow?” Niki’s father asked. Niki shrugged. She had been silent ever since Claire’s picture had blown over the cliff. Niki’s parents exchanged glances and walked quicker. Their daughter clearly wanted to be left alone. Niki sighed. Losing that picture was like losing her friend all over again. Niki trudged toward their room, which had been a horse stable before it was remodeled into a hotel. Her parents thought that staying in this hotel and visiting famous Irish places would make her like living in Ireland. It wasn’t working. Niki sighed again. She halfheartedly scanned the landscape, running her eyes over huge trees, the flowing stream, the stone wall covered with ivy. She reached out and ran her hand through the ivy as she walked. Some of the ivy curtain parted and Niki saw a blue piece of trash crammed into a hole in the stone wall. She stopped walking and separated the ivy so she could tug on it. There was a rock holding it in place, which seemed strange. Why would you need a rock to hold a piece of trash in a hole in a wall? Niki wondered. She yanked it out and let the curtain of ivy close. Niki blinked and looked closer at what she held in her hand. It was a blue plastic bag with a piece of paper inside it. Carefully, Niki opened the bag and pulled the paper out. Niki couldn’t breathe. A girl? Who lived here? Dear Someone, Hi. My father runs this hotel. This is where I live, but none of my friends live around here. I’m lonely. I’ve always wanted a penpal from another country, so would you write me a letter when you get home? It would be even better if you lived here; but letters are a good way to be friends, too. Your hopeful friend, Bridget Niki couldn’t breathe. A girl? Who lived here? This was better than she had imagined. Their new house was only a few minutes’ drive away. She started to run, calling, “Mom! Dad! Look what I found!” Niki raced to their room. She waved the letter at her mother, too breathless with excitement to explain. Her mother took the letter and handed Niki one in exchange. Niki glanced at the return address and hurriedly ripped open the envelope. It was from Claire! Niki grinned. She might have lost Claire’s picture, but she would never lose Claire as a friend. And she had found a new friend right here in Ireland. Maureen Sullivan, 12Arlington Heights, Illinois Carly Thaw, 13Charleston,