Sunset Valley

Chapter 11.

I chased after them, and finally caught up with them once I was sure the officers couldn't be following us anymore.

"Great," Jem panted. "We just arrived to the place of our dreams and were wanted fugitives. Just peachy."

"Our wanted posters will probably be up by sunrise," Freya confirmed. I sighed.

"Oh well. Anyone got an extra sleeping bag? Mine was in my backpack.."

They shook their heads, but Freya offered up her blanket. We agreed, for when we decided to go to sleep that's that is what I would use, and decided to explore some more.

Nothing interesting really happened to use except that we got lost as we went deeper. That's okay, though, because the officers probably already found our ship and it would be suicide going back. At lunch we stopped and picked some fruit we thought was safe to eat, even though it was fruit I've never seen before. It tasted good, so I guessed it was safe and had some more. Dinner was similar.

At eight we stopped and decided to go to bed, because it was Freya's 'bedtime'. Of course, Jem and I stayed up later, because we wer'nt tired yet.

I was reading my book, which was hard to do because Jem kept trying to talk to me.

"How do you like it here?" He asked.

"It's cool," I replied, but I was focusing more on my book. I was getting into a good part. I continued reading, enjoying the pause he gave me from chatting. Then, he said, "Do you want to see something amazing?"

I looked up for the first time in five minutes. "What?"

"Here." Jem took my book from me. "Lay down, Eddie." I was about to refuse, when I saw something in his face that convinced me that I had to see this and gave in. He turned off the light. But it didn't look that way, it looked as if he turned the stars on. They were all suddenly winking at me, blue and gold and white. One thought formed in my mind: WOW. We didn't get stars in Afsia like this.

"Oh my goodness.." I said, awe seeping into my voice. But instead of a reaponse, I heard Jem say something that didn't come out of his mouth. Words he did not write. He was reading my book. I turned to look at him.

"Jem-"

"Hey! Do you want me to read to you or not?"

I couldn't help but smile a little as I faced back to the sky. I didn't fall asleep, not even for the tiniest microscopic millisecond until he finished that book. It ended perfectly, that story. Not the way it should, but perfectly.

When Jem was done, he was out of breath.

"Hey, Jem?" I asked.

"Yeah?" he panted. Even in the dark I could make out the shape of his body, his chest rising and falling, eventually getting slower and slower.

"Thank you," I said, closing my eyes.

"Uh-huh," he replied with one last big sigh, and he fell asleep, facing away from me.