Jamie Bennett lived in Burgess, Connecticut. He lived on the suburbs, where the land was a bright, parched green. The forest outside stretched hills and trees as far as the eye could see. The sky above was a cold, purple-blue.
Of course, Burgess wasn't really as muted as all that. But that's how it sometimes seemed to Jamie. Jamie was eight and lived in one of these houses. He lived with his mother, his two going on three year old sister, Sophie, and his Greyhound dog, Abby.
One afternoon, Jamie hurried home from school. Abby scampered along the dusty, dirt road beside him. Jamie was panting and out of breath. He looked back as if he were afraid somebody might be following them. "She isn't coming yet, Abby!" he said. Jamie knelt down and ran his hands through Abby's fur. "Did she hurt you?" he asked. "She tried to didn't she? Come on, we'll go tell Sophie and Mom!"
When Jamie reached the Bennett residence, he pushed open the old wooden gate and raced toward the house. Mrs. Bennett and Sophie were outside, huddled over a bunch of boxes.
"Mom! Mom!" cried Jamie "Mom, just listen to what Miss Hattie did to Abby!"
"Jamie, please!" Mrs. Bennett interrupted "We're trying to hold a yard sale!"
"Yard sale!" Sophie added gently.
But Jamie couldn't stop. "But Mom, Miss Hattie hit Abby right on the back with rake just because she gets in her house and chases her nasty old cat everyday!"
"Jamie, Jamie, please!" his mother cut in again.
"But she doesn't do it everyday, just once or twice a week and she can't catch her old cat anyway and now she's gonna get the Sheriff-"
"Jamie, we're busy!" Mrs. Bennett said, once and for all.
Jamie simply gave up. "Oh, all right. Maybe my friends will listen." He thought.
He walked over to a house where his friends, Caleb, Claude, Monty, Pippa and Cupcake were washing a brand new GTO.
"How's it coming?" asked Caleb.
"Take it easy." Claude instructed.
Monty, who was holding the hose, became distracted by the conversation and pointed it at Caleb who got wet from the front.
"You got me all wet!" he cried.
"Why don't you get out of the way?" Cupcake remarked with a sarcastic reply.
Jamie eventually came up to his friends who were by now almost finished with the car.
"Monty," Jamie started right in. "What am I going to do about Miss Hattie, just because Abby gets in her house and chases her-"
But Monty didn't have time to listen to Jamie either. "Listen Jamie," he said. "I've got my own dog to feed."
Caleb and Claude put the hose down and walked over to Jamie. "Lookit Jamie," they said. "You ain't using your head about Miss Hattie. Think you didn't have any brains at all!"
"I have so got brains!" Jamie said hotly.
"Well why don't you use them?" asked Claude. "When you go home, don't go by Miss Hattie's place. Then Abby won't get her house and you won't in no trouble see?"
"Oh guys, you just won't listen that's all." Jamie said.
Caleb put the hose in front of Claude. "At least your headisn't made of straw!" he insulted and sprayed the water in Claude's face. Now it was his turn to get wet.
Pippa and Cupcake stepped stiffly toward the house that they lived in. "It feels like I'm all rusted." Pippa complained, and then Cupcake turned to Jamie. "Before Pippa and I can test out our wind machine for the school conventions, I'd like to say that Miss Hattie is a poor sour-faced old maid. She ain't got no heart. You should have a little more heart yourself and have pity on her."
"Well, gee, I try and have a heart," said Jamie, doubtfully, then he went over to Monty.
"Listen, buddy," Monty advised Jamie. "Are you going to let that Miss Hattie try and buffalo you? She ain't nothing to be afraid of. Have a little courage, that's all."
"I'm not afraid of her," said Jamie, who was walking on the railings of the picket fence.
"Well, the next time I'd walk right up to her and spit her in the eye. That's what I do."
Jamie lifted his right foot. He fell over the narrow fence, tottered backward and fell into the yard. His friends rushed over.
"Are you all right, Jamie?" asked Claude.
"Yes, I'm all right," said Jamie, though he was a little shaken. "I fell in and – and Monty…" he started to laugh as Monty wiped his forehead. "Why, Monty, you're just as scared as I am!"
"Did that old dog of yours make a coward out of you?" asked Cupcake. They all laughed except Monty who just miffed. "That's a fine thing to say."
Then Jamie's mother came up. "Here, here what's all this chattering when there is work to be done?"
Pippa began to explain. "Well, Jamie was-"
"I saw you tinkering with that contraption, Pippa! Now you and Cupcake get back to that car. Besides, you can't work on an empty stomach, have some snicker doodles."
They each took one. "Thank you Mrs. Bennett," said Caleb and Claude after getting one for themselves. "Someday, they might erect a statue of me in this town."
"And don't start posing the communist salute!" snapped Mrs. Bennett as she handed a snicker doodle to Monty and Jamie.
"Well you see Jamie was walking along the fence and-" Monty began.
"It's no place for Jamie around a pigsty!" Mrs. Bennett yelled. "Now you go feed that dog before he worries himself out of starvation!"
Jamie wobbled his own snicker doodle in front of his mother's face, "Mom, really!" he said. "You know what Miss Hattie said she was gonna do with Abby? She said that-"
But for the third time, his mother interrupted. "Now, Jamie, stop imagining things, you always get yourself into a fret over nothing. Now you just help us out today and find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble. I gotta get back into the house for some more doodles."
Mrs. Bennett strode back into the kitchen. Jamie stared miserably after her.
A place where there wasn't any trouble . . . Jamie wished he knew of such a place. It wouldn't be a bit like Burgess, he thought, then he asked Abby out loud. "Do you suppose there is such a place, Abby? It must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat or train. It's far, far away. Behind the moon. Beyond the rain."
When all the world is a hopeless jumble
And the raindrops tumble all around
Heaven opens a magic lane
When all the clouds darken up the skyway
There's a rainbow highway to be found
Leading from your windowpane
To a place behind the sun
Just a step beyond the rain
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
Someday I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops and way above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me
Somewhere over the rainbow
Blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little blue birds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?