A review by erileyu
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt

5.0

Reverend Ballou took Joseph's hand to shake it, and Joseph said, "How much of that story is true?" Reverend Ballou considered this.
"I think it all has to be true, or none of it," he
said.
"The angels?" said Joseph. "Really?"
"Why not?" said Reverend Ballou.
"Because bad things happen," said Joseph. "If there were angels, then bad things wouldn't hap-pen."
"Maybe angels aren't always meant to stop bad things."
"So what good are they?"
"To be with us when bad things happen."
Joseph looked at him.
"Then where the hell were they?" he said.
I thought Reverend Ballou was going to start bawling.
And that was the end of our Christmas Eve service at new First Congregational.

So Reverend Ballou read some verses and talked about them and he said something about angels and he stopped for a little bit and then he said, really quiet, "Where the hell were they?" and then we prayed a long time. Afterward we went out to the cemetery on Lower Gore, where the Hurd grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents are buried. Mr. Canton and Mr. D'Ulney, and my father and I, we held the ropes that lowered Joseph into our family, beside the high white pines. Then Reverend Ballou prayed again, and he said that Joseph had put himself in danger to save others, and then he said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
And that's when I started crying. Crying like a kindergarten kid in front of everyone. Crying because Joseph wasn't just my friend.
I had his back.
And he had mine.
That's what greater love is.