Page 6 of Lavender Moon

“I love art, but I can’t draw,” I admitted glumly, and twisted my mouth at the corner as I continued to watch his work.

“Want to color it in when I’m done?” he asked as he looked up, his eyebrows slightly lifted.

“Sure!” I felt myself light up, even though with Kaleb’s incredible knack for filling in and shading, it seriously didn’t need it. I think my little ego just needed a boost.

I waited patiently for the next little while for Kaleb to be done, but the lunch bell rang, signaling our craft hour was up.

“Here,” he’d said, folding it up and handing it over to me. You can do it in your cabin or something.”

“Thanks,” I said, looking at our hands touching as I took it from him. “Do you care how I do it? What colors I use?”

“You can do whatever you want,” he said and looked down, giving me that serene smile with his lashes coming partway down over his green eyes for the first time.

Little bubbles of excitement creeped through me, and I could think of nothing else but making it something he’d love. “What’s your favorite color?” I asked, as we started strolling side by side to the mess hall.

“Black.”

“Oh,” I looked down at the path, not expecting that answer. I loved colors and I wanted to do something special with his favorite. My aunt had taught me to use every shade of a single color all on one picture, and I was immediately hooked. The end product was always so cool. But there were only so many shades of black.

As if sensing my trepidation, Kaleb’s face took on a quizzical expression. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Purple,” I rattled right off while I still stewed over what to do with the wolf drawing, but very quickly, it came to me. I had the best idea.

* * *

Kaleb

The high ofbeing in virtually another world was starting to get jaded by the impending reality I’d have to go back to as I rolled up my sleeping bag. It’s crazy how my own day-to-day life had never bothered me before, but here I was, almost dreading going back to it. For the last two weeks I’d gotten to see what it was like to have someone by my side. Pops meant well, but looking back, I know that Luna already knew me worlds better than he did in much less time.

I barely registered a rap at the cabin’s screen door as I finished stuffing random items in my backpack, but perked up when Logan called out, “Kaleb, Luuuuuna’s here!” in a mocking voice. He clearly did not make the distinction between girlfriend and girl friend.

Ignoring him, I approached the door to find Luna’s face reflecting my exact sentiment with a bored roll of her eyes. Offering up a smile in solidarity, I opened the door and came out to meet her on the front porch.

“I brought you something,” she chirped, holding out a familiar-looking folded up piece of paper. Pulling it open, I half expected I’d find the wolf I drew that she colored in, but it took my breath away anyway.

It was the coolest wolf I’d ever seen with streaks of purple against black in all different shades. Grape, lavender, pitch black, violet, charcoal, even a color you couldn’t quite tell was black or purple… they all gave a certain essence to the wolf. It looked mystical yet dangerous. Dark, but beautiful.

“I love it,” I breathed out, not even thinking about my words as my eyes stayed fixated on the paper.

“I’m glad you like it,” Luna’s voice echoed softly as I continued to catalog each line and curve. Still not satisfied, but not wanting to spend our goodbye staring at something I’d have the rest of my life to look at, I looked back up at her.

“Thank you.”

“I was thinking, we could keep in touch?” She lifts a shoulder and squints her eyes shyly. “I could write my number at the bottom. I only get limited privileges with my cell phone, but we could text each other and call and stuff,” she offers, sounding hopeful.

“Um…” I stammered, trying not to acknowledge the sinking feeling in my gut while I found a way to explain. But when I looked in those expectant brown eyes that I just now noticed had a few gold flecks, I realized this was the person who’d embraced everything about me from the start. “I don’t have a phone,” I confess.

Luna didn’t bat an eye at my admission, and brightly suggested, “We could write letters then.”

“Yeah, sure,” I agreed and piped up at the idea, dashing back to my bunk to get a paper and pen. After scratching down my address, using the flat rail of the porch, I handed the pen to her and watched as she started to write down her own.

Luna Conlin, she wrote down before quickly scribbling out the last name and starting over.

“Did you forget your last name, goof?” I teased her, watching her cheeks turn a little pink.

“Yeah,” she chuckled at herself, but not looking up. Instead, she busied herself with the task of writing her information down. “I’m still not used to writing my new last name.”

Luna Isaak her name now read, when she finally handed the paper back to me.

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