A Separate Peace

She did ask if I had read it.
I did.  In high school.

She gave it to me anyways.
A Separate Peace.
A story of two teenage friends.
Boys who were roommates.

Then one became jealous.
As usually happens.
And the other unawares.
As it is usually.


They both climb a tree one day, together.
As they had the whole summer.
They were suppose to jump off the limb, together.
Into the river below.
As they had the whole summer.

For an inexplicable reason, one jounced the branch.
Ever so slightly.
The other, a natural athlete, fell and broke his leg.
Never to walk properly again.
Much less play sports.

Maybe the reason wasn't so inexplicable.
Maybe it was like the war that was happening around them.
World War II.
Where people shoot each other for reasons they don't know.

The book doesn't end there.
The one who broke his leg, fell again.
And dies.

What goes through the heart of the one who is still alive?
The friend who wonders at what makes himself jounce the branch.
The friend who wonders if he is really a human, much less a friend.

The book is an unusual gift between friends.
Yet we are friends of almost twenty years.

The gift is apt.
It gives honor to what has flowed between us.
It is hope to all that will come.

Well, the book is not as dark as it sounds.
It is a separate peace.

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