One summer I got so fast at climbing fences that I could climb into the Hutchinson's yard in six seconds flat. Of course, climbing in was easy; climbing out was the bigger problem. After hearing their spaniel bark and the gardener yell, and running all the way across their grassy fields, it usually took me around eight or nine seconds at best. But that was fast enough to escape Mrs. Hutchinson, who would have done who knows what to me had she caught me stealing one of her precious watermelons. Sometimes, I wondered is she loved those watermelons more than her very own son.
It seemed that Tom had everything that he needed in life, but I could tell that this was not the case. Even with his big white house, and fancy clothing that Mrs. Hutchinson made him wear, he was still missing something. Sometimes when we sat in the shade of our little spot by the bramble bushes, he would get real quiet and I knew then that I should get quiet too, and leave him to think.
One morning when I went to meet Tom by the raspberry patch, he wasn’t there. On every other morning he was waiting for me when I got there; he would hold a paper bag with sandwiches for us, not knowing how long we’d be out, and his clothes would be pristine, before our daily adventure would cover them with dirt. While waiting for him I picked some raspberries, figuring that I would eat half, and save the other half for Tom once he came. But before I knew it my mouth tasted sweet and my lips were red, and they were all gone.
When Tom did come, he came in a rush. His sleeves were already rolled and sweat dripped from his forehead down to his chin.
“Sorry Cas,”  he said while practically panting. “I was listening to the man on the radio when I lost track of time. You know he says that there are gonna be stars falling out of the sky all week long. Can you believe it? Stars falling from the sky! It sounds a bit scary to me, but it’s supposed to make a beautiful show!”
He picked a raspberry up and held it out for me to take.
“No, I’ve already had too many. You should have it.” He plopped it in his mouth.
We set off for our daily adventure. As always we had to walk all the way around the property to where the hole in the fence lay because Tom wouldn’t risk ripping his pants by climbing over. I however, always insisted on climbing over the fence, even if we were next to the hole. Tom timed that I climbed over in seven seconds that day, watching the ticks of the second hand on the watch his father gave him before he finally left for good.
We ran through the woods, waded through the stream, and then ate our sandwiches by the birch trees. After, we ran to the garden shed, grabbed two shovels and went searching for our treasure marked by a heart shaped rock. To me, the rock looked normal with a chip at the top, and maybe a bit pointy-ish at the end, but once he found it he insisted that we use it, and wouldn’t hear otherwise. Tom was like that. He had always been good at finding beauty in what others saw as normal.
Normally the soil would have been hard to remove, but as we dug it came up easily since it had been removed and replaced so many times. I hit the glass first. We ceased our digging and I searched through the soil with my hands, pulling out our mason jar. It was caked with dirt, but you could still see its contents: our stash of candy. Tom and I had pooled our money, with a little stolen from Mrs. Hutchinson’s pocketbook, and gone into town to buy some candy which we hid. Mrs. Hutchinson would never let Tom have candy in the house.
We each took one piece, put the jar back and filled the hole, and then went by the stream. We sat for a while just thinking and sucking on our lollipops.
“Tom, can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Why do you think Mrs. Hutchinson doesn’t like me?”
He gave me an uneasy look. I could tell I had made him very uncomfortable. He kept his lollipop in his mouth for a while before he took it out to answer. “Come on, I mean, you know, my mother is...that’s not even really true,” he paused for a bit before continuing. “Well, I like you Cas, you’re my best friend.” I smiled at him, but it wasn’t a real smile. I knew why she didn’t like me. It was because I wore Carhartts instead of dresses, and climbed fences and trees, and played in the woods rather than had tea parties with dolls. She thought it would be for his own good to be friends with the other boys.
“Hey Cas, I’ve been thinking. I want to see those stars fall out of the sky.”
And so we decided to make a plan to leave our houses in the night, for our most daring adventure yet. Tom gave me his watch, and we agreed on the time and place to meet. I counted down the seconds, and then grabbed my blanket and climbed out the window. I probably could have just walked out the door, but that would have been less of an adventure. Outside it was so dark I could barely see my own hand. But when I looked up I saw so many stars that I couldn’t wait for Tom to see them all because I knew how happy it would make him. I wondered how far away those stars were. The farthest Tom and I had been was to the rock face where if it rained enough it would make a little waterfall. The stars must have been at least ten times that far away.
I met Tom by the watermelon plants. I took my pocket knife and cut one for us to share as we watched the stars fall from the sky. We put a blanket down underneath us and lay looking up. He told me how he wished he went to the normal school like me, rather than the private school. He told me how mean many of the other boys were to him and how in the school yard he often just sat alone.
“It’s not the same anymore without Dad, it’s just not the same. He would always tell me to ignore the other boys but I just don’t think I can. How can I feel so lonely surrounded by so many people when I don’t feel that way when I’m alone with you?” I looked at him, but I just didn’t know what to say. He lay his head on my stomach and I could see that his eyes were filling with tears. He whispered, “I am only crying because I think it is sad that the stars are falling out of the sky, and I don’t want there to be no stars left.”
After that we just lay in silence. I saw a sliver of light come through between the rows of plants. When the light got closer, I realized that behind it was a figure, the figure of Mrs. Hutchinson. As she got to the watermelons, she stopped. I lay completely still thinking that if she hadn’t said anything yet she must not have seen me. I tapped Tom to warn him, but he was fast asleep. When I looked at her, she didn’t look angry, she just looked kind of both sad and happy at the same time. We made eye contact and then the strangest thing happened. She smiled at me then turned around and walked back. I watched as the light disappeared, and once again we were lit only by the stars. Tom awoke and lay beside me. I noticed that I still had his watch on my wrist so I unbuckled it and tried to hand it to him.
“No Cas, you keep it.”
“I can’t,” I looked at him wondering if he had feigned sleep.
“No Cas, you keep it. Now you can tell how long it takes you to climb over the fence.”
I looked him in the eyes, trying to figure it all out. I whispered, “I don’t know if I’ll need to climb over your fence anymore, but maybe I’ll do it anyway.” I looked through the darkness to see if he knew what I meant, but it was too dark to tell. Wishing that summer would never end, we covered ourselves in the blanket and fell asleep under the stars to the sound of crickets chirping and the muffled ticking of the watch.