A Half Full Moon

The boys stood in the clearing behind the house before the first trees of the forest, a darkening sky above.

Wow, that moon is exactly half a sphere!

Half a circle.

What?

It’s a circle. What you can see is a circle, and only half of it. A sphere is an orb, like a ball. You can’t see the backside of the moon, only the front.

Billy looked down at the can of beer in his hand and he put it to his lips and tilted his head backward and swallowed and he saw the moon even better this way.

You’re an ass.

Jim laughed. But I’m an ass who’s right. Both of the boys chuckled and then were silent, a small wind in the the highest of the branches above, the trees bending against the horizon.

The half moon floated above them and as they watched there were banks of thin cloud brushing over it, dimming its light and revealing it again and some blackening it altogether and then they too moving on.

Do you think he’ll ever come back?

No. No, I don’t. I think he’s gone forever.

Ya, me too.