Read Online The Color of Heaven by The Colour of Heaven (html) - Free Book Online Page A

Stop!” I cried, laughing and screeching, knowing I was going to be nauseous and dizzy as a goose the minute I hopped off.
    Peter grabbed hold of my knees. “There. See? You’re stopped.” He grinned at me.
    “It’s about time.”
    I struggled to focus on his face. My head was spinning, but I could stil see the yel ow flecks in his brown eyes. His hands were warm on my knees.
    I always felt so comfortable with Peter.
    Just then, something caught my eye and my gaze darted to the side of the house.
    “It’s Matt,” Peter said. There was a hint of disappointment in his voice.
    My bel y, however, was whirling with excitement – or maybe it was the after-effects of spinning in the tire swing. I wasn’t sure. Al I knew was that Matt had arrived and things were about to get exciting.
    He sprinted toward us, flying like an airplane through the air, whistling like a torpedo.
    Peter stepped out of the way.
    “I’m hit! I’m going down!” Matt covered his heart with a hand and dove to the grass. He rol ed a few times then came to a crashing halt, flat on his
    back, arms spread wide, directly under my feet. He lay very stil , eyes closed.
    Peter chuckled softly and shook his head, while I gazed down at Matt and laughed myself sil y. “You’re insane.”
    He opened his eyes and smiled up at me. His eyes were different from Peter’s. They were a deep, cobalt blue – the color of an October sky.
    “I wil be by the end of tomorrow,” he said, “because Mr. Hubert’s gonna have it in for me, I know it.”
    Peter offered a hand and pul ed Matt to his feet. “Wel , don’t do anything to get him riled. Just do what he tel s you to do.”
    “You know I’m no good at that.” Matt wiped the grass off the shoulders of his jean jacket.
    Feeling energetic al of a sudden, I stretched my legs out and leaned back to start swinging again. Matt gave me a firm push, then another and
    another until I was swinging high and spiraling in great sweeping circles.
    “Higher!” I shouted.
    Matt pushed harder. The rope creaked along the thick branch. The leaves trembled and quivered. “I bet I can get you high enough to touch the top!”
    Peter’s gaze traveled up the length of the rope. “You better slow down,” he said. “That branch is going to break.”
    “No, it won’t,” Matt replied.
    “Yes, it wil .”
    Matt grabbed hold of the tire and slowed me down.
    “Let’s go to the lake then,” he said, then glanced down and noticed a grass stain on his knee. “Shit, my dad’s gonna kil me.”
    “Want me to get a washcloth?” Peter offered.
    “Nah. It doesn’t matter. So what do you say? Want to go?”
    Peter replied for both of us. “We’re not supposed to go to the lake after supper.”
    It was a ten-minute walk through the woods, and our parents had a strict rule about that. Only in the afternoons.
    “Ah, come on,” Matt said. “Cora’s parents and my dad know we’re both here, and you can tel your mom we’re al going to Cora’s yard. They’l never
    know the difference.”
    It was true. They probably wouldn’t, and I was tempted. There was no wind tonight. The water would be as shiny as a looking glass.
    “It is the last day of vacation,” I cautiously mentioned.
    Peter spoke firmly. “No. It wouldn’t be right. We’d get in trouble.”
    “Not if they never found out,” Matt argued.
    “But they might,” Peter replied.
    Matt shrugged, then swung his legs up over a branch to hang upside down by his knees. The ends of his wavy hair brushed over the grass. “My dad
    wouldn’t care anyway.”
    I thought the opposite. Peter and I might get a scolding, but Matt would get a serious beating.
    It was something no one talked about because Matt’s father was a widower, raising his children alone. He’d been doing that since Matt was seven,
    after his mother fel down the stairs and broke her neck. The folks in town had whispered about it. They said her head turned around backwards.
    My father was the town