Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me - Gae Polisner

NOW. JUNE 29.

MALIBU, CA

Aubrey,

I’ve started this letter three times, but each place I begin feels wrong. I get lost in the memories and my thoughts lose their way, and I have to start over again. But, as hard as it is to find my way in, I know I need to try. I have to figure out why we hurt each other the way we did, how we ended up hating each other so much.

Sometimes, I miss you so bad I can’t breathe, and I break down in tears, or get so mad at you I wonder why I even care. But, in my heart, I know why I do. You were always my best friend, Aubrey, the one person who understood.

I hope you will understand now.

Part I

We most often observe butterflies hovering amidst gardens,

but some may be found in mud puddles;

there are valuable nutrients to be gained there, too.

LATE JUNE

BEFORE EIGHTH GRADE

The day is hot. We’re running through the sprinkler in my backyard, dodging in and out of the cold spray that fans over us, shrieking as droplets rain down onto our sun-warmed, tanned skin.

You push me closer as the arc of water returns, and I fall onto the grass, wet, laughing, taking you down with me. The sod under us is new and soft, and the freshly cut blades stick to our limbs, our faces.

We are giddy with summer, with each other. We are still on the cusp of everything.

Afterwards, you turn off the hose, and we lie on faded chaise lounges we drag to the middle of my yard, our chests heaving with rapid, satisfied breaths in our barely-filled-out bikini tops.

You reach out and take my hand and an indescribable sort of electricity shoots through me, real and palpable, as if I could reach out the fingers of my other hand and touch it, some white-hot charge that holds us together.

We are friends—best friends—but more than that. We are entirely, platonically, in love.

“See that cloud, JL?” You let go and point off beyond the top of the tallest sycamore branches. “It looks like a giant mushroom, doesn’t it?” My eyes follow your finger, my hand cold from the loss. “Do you see it there?”

I bust out laughing.

“What’s so funny?” you ask, your voice defensive.

I lean all the way over, tilt your face a bit with my hand to change the angle. “It looks a lot like something else, Aubs. Look again.”

You sit up and squint to see clearer. After a second, you say, “Oh my god, it’s a giant penis cloud, isn’t it?” and we both fall apart laughing.

When our stomachs hurt so bad we have to fight from laughing more, you lie back down and ask softly, “Have you ever seen one for real, JL?”

“A penis? No.” I think for a minute. “I mean, pictures, yes, but not in real life, in person. Why? You?”

You nod and look at me, eyes big, mouth covered by your own hand like you’ve revealed some dangerous secret, making me sit up and demand, “Okay, spill! Whose?” You shake your head hard, your eyes round over your still-cupped fingers. I run off a few names, guessing.

“David Brundage?”

“Scott Silvestri?”

“Matthew Flynn?”

You uncover your mouth. “God, no! I hear it’s giant, though. Like a grown man’s…”

“Well, tell, then.”

“No one from school,” you say, covering your mouth again and adding through half-open fingers, “closer to home, JL. Come on.”

“Ew, Ethan’s?” I squeal too loudly, and you nod, and we both shriek and shudder in exaggerated, disgusted delight. “Oh my god!” I say. “Why?”

“By accident, obviously. I wasn’t trying! I walked in on him in the bathroom. He forgot to lock the door, and—”

“Ew! So gross! Don’t tell me!” I cry, but I have a thousand questions. Ones I will never dare ask.

“Right? Totally. That thing is, like, burned into my brain!” We shudder one more time for good measure.

After, we’re quiet for a while, and the clouds shift and the mushroom one feathers out and disappears.

I take your hand this time, feeling the electric bond return as I swing our clasped fingers together in the space between our chairs.

“I love you,” I say.

“Me too,” you respond too quickly. I roll my head to the side and smile, and you add, “Your boobs are getting bigger than mine. No fair.”

“They are?” I glance down my chest toward my two pathetic, barely-there mounds beneath the bikini fabric.

You nod. “Yes. And you’re so pretty—too pretty—you’re really perfect, you know? I’ve never had a friend as perfect as you.”

It