Elephant in the Sky by Heather A. Clark

sad as well. Like me.
    The bird flies away and I am alone again. I continue waiting. Waiting for my sign. Waiting to see Noah.
    After what feels like forever, I see Noah ride his bike down the street. He stops at my driveway. He shields his eyes from the sun and waves when he sees me standing in the window.
    I glance at my mom, who is still sleeping. I can make a run for it and she won’t wake up. She won’t know that Noah and I decided to meet each other super early in the morning to ride our bikes.
    I run to meet Noah. When I get outside, he is still waiting on our driveway.
    â€œLet’s hit the good park, guy. No one will be there at this time.” Noah fist-bumps me because it’s our standard greeting. We do it every time we see each other, just like the other kids at school. That’s where I learned it. But the kids at school never do it with me. Only Noah.
    I jump up and down. I am excited. I love the park when no one is there. Especially the good park.
    I keep jumping. Up. Down. Up. Down. I jump in one spot until my lungs burn from the cold air. My teeth rattle and I bite my lip when my feet hit the ground. I taste blood.
    â€œLook!” I show Noah the blood.
    â€œYou’re fine. Don’t be a baby,” Noah answers. He jumps on his bike. I think he is going to go to the parkette a few streets over. But he starts heading towards the really good park. The one with the zoo.
    I grab my bike from beside the house and begin to follow him. I try to ignore the blood. My lip stops stinging.
    Noah is ahead of me. I ride fast to catch up. The cold air keeps burning my lungs. I ride faster. I laugh out loud because my insides feel cold but my skin feels like it’s burning.
    We get to the park. We sit on the swings. I pump my feet as hard as I can. I want to go high. As high as Noah.
    Higher.
    Higher.
    Higher.
    I feel excited.
    Then I get scared. But I kind of like it. I like feeling scared. So I jump off the swing. I hit the ground. I hit it hard.
    Really, really hard.

12
    Ashley
    The minute I realized Nate was gone, I jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs. I tried to convince myself he was likely eating Cheerios and watching cartoons, or perhaps he had sneaked outside to play in the backyard. But a stronger sense in the pit of my gut told me it was something else. Something bad.
    â€œNate?” I called out. The house was silent. Upstairs, Pete and Grace still slept.
    I raced around the house, looking in every spot Grace and Nate had ever used while playing Hide and Seek.
    No Nate.
    I poked my head out our back door and called his name, hearing nothing in return but creaks from the empty swings that were dancing in the wind. Nate wasn’t in the front yard. Or the garage.
    When I was convinced he wasn’t on our property, I ran upstairs to wake Pete. He rose instantly, jumping into the warm-up pants he had thrown on the floor beside our bed when he went to sleep the night before.
    I followed Pete downstairs. He grabbed his keys from the foyer table. “Do you want me to come?” I asked him.
    â€œProbably not the best idea since the last time I checked it was illegal to leave sleeping children alone in the house.” Pete’s voice had a mean bite to it. When he saw the tears spring to my eyes, he continued in a softer voice. “Ash, you need to stay here. I’ll go. Just try not to alarm Gracie when she wakes up. You know how she can get sometimes when she’s scared. Maybe just say I’ve gone out for a drive or something. Okay?”
    I nodded, hoping I wouldn’t have to have that conversation any time soon. I wasn’t in the frame of mind to pretend like everything was okay. I was worried sick about my son.
    Feeling woozy, I tottered into the kitchen and tried to think of what to do next. Should I call the police? No, it had only been about twenty minutes since I’d realized he was gone. Should I call a neighbour so I could look for Nate