Adventure Camp Trip to Cedar Point(Summer after Sixth Grade)Today a bird poops in Garrison’s
hair at Cedar Point Amusement Park—
“Why does this always happen to me!” he groans,
and we laugh at him.
Junie and I
ride a wooden roller coaster called Gemini,
which is our favorite
ride, the twins. We are soul twins, and it’s the happiest
I’ve ever been. The rain
starts in the middle
of the ride, pelting our faces
at eighty miles per hour,
and it really hurts, and
we both laugh,
or I laugh and
Junie cries, or
I laugh at Junie
crying
because I don’t
know what else to do,
and the lightning actually hits
at the top of that ride—
boom—and Junie hugs me, then
lets go, the lightning flashing red behind my closed eyes.
I buy Junie an
extremely soft teddy bear,
Wicked Twister Bear,
named after one of the rides,
all golden-yellow and soft, so soft,
softer than a fluffy dog’s fur,
and she doesn’t want it.
But all three of us,
Junie, Garrison, and me,
sit together on the bus ride back—
I put my head on Junie’s shoulder,
and she’s asleep. I feel so much love
for my friends—
they are the highest tower in the valley,
the sound of apples falling on grass,
and their eyes always sparkle like rhinestones
in the fluorescent lights at school.
I put Garrison’s head on my
shoulder, and Garrison
says, “This is weird,”
then Junie wakes up
and pushes me off her.
All of us sit in the tiny seat, awake, trying not
to touch, and for me it feels like it’s all over.
Rewind No.
It’s not over, I tell myself
in the middle of the night, after Cedar Point.
Tomorrow we’re going to see a baseball gamedowntown at Jay’s Field—our
field! Tomorrow I’m finally going to do it. I’ll tell Junie that I’ve loved her for two years,that I know she’s loved me too. I’ll explain it all, my whole soft heart,from the beginning.Everything started in fifth grade.
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