Explorations

            Ari and Dante. Dante and Ari. They still manage to maintain their friendship even with the distance. Dante has moved to Chicago because his dad has a job for eight months. Most of their communications are through letters. According to Dante, it is a 7 to 1 ratio – for every seven letters that Dante sends to Ari, Ari writes and sends one. What Dante writes about most is how he is exploring. I’m not sure if he does it because he wants to or because that is what teenagers are supposed to do. He tried beer, for example. Dante also states that he kissed a girl, and that he is more interested in kissing boys. Ari decides to follow Dante’s example with both beer and kissing girls, and he begins to hang out more with a couple of female friends who he has known for a long time. Ari’s opinions of the two friends are not that high, but that seems to be ok. The most important event for Ari is getting his driver’s license. Ari’s parents buy him an old pickup truck, and Ari could not be happier. By the end of this second section of the story, although the two boys are not together, they are each finding their own ways to things. Ari also has a job. Flipping burgers to earn money may not seem great yet it is a freedom for Ari.

           

Towards the end, Dante’s letters are about wanting to kiss Ari, which Ari does not directly respond to at this point. Ari reflects on all the ideas that Dante presents in his letters or conversations. At first, he has a girl who he thinks about and she kisses and flirts with Ari, even though she has a boyfriend. When he finds out she disappeared because she is pregnant and had to get married, he wonders about the entire situation and his actual feelings, wondering if he is more like Dante.

            I don’t have much to reflect on this because I feel like the meat of the story is still coming. We are not scheduled to finish the book until after we return from spring break in another week. I do like that the boys write to each other and the actions match their characteristics. It is not surprising, for example, that Dante writes more often than Ari. Even with the distance, they are still learning from each other and it makes me wonder what will happen when they reunite in person again. Are they “just friends,” or will they both be exploring more with each other?