Dandelion Wine

On a beautiful day, Douglas goes hiking with John Huff, who is the best athlete of all the boys. John knows the names of all the flowers and the time of moonrise and the words to all the cowboy songs; the narrative describes him as “the only god living in the whole of Green Town, Illinois, during the twentieth century that Douglas Spaulding knew of” (136). Douglas is thinking how perfect and sunny everything is, and how it’ll surely last forever, when John suddenly announces that he and his family are moving to Milwaukee and must leave that evening. Douglas sits under a tree to think; John joins him. Douglas says John can visit every week; John says more likely it’ll be twice a year. Douglas says he’ll call John or visit him. John is quiet and Douglas suddenly wants to cram a month’s worth of conversation into one afternoon. John mentions the colored windows in a neighbor’s house, saying he only just noticed them for the first time and now wonders what else he has not fully appreciated. He also worries that he’ll forget things about his life in Green Town, the way he sometimes forgets what his parents’ faces look like.