August 25, 2008
As I sat waiting for the appropriate boarding time, I flicked through one of the books I bought during my short excursion in Malaysia. Although the trip destined for Brunei was insufferable hours delayed (insufferable since ‘I’, an inept traveler was at the airport 1:30 p.m. for my 5:45 p.m. flight which was later on rescheduled three times. Talk about a long wait. I’ve never seen my fingernails grow!) I was at my desideratum, however, far from throwing a hissy fit amidst the commotion of travelers anxious to get in the plane and my deferred flight, as I was taking a ride of my own.
With Stephen Chbosky’s novel “Perks of being a wallflower” at hand, I don’t mind the interminable wait. Slowly and subtly, I was drifted into the life of Charlie as he writes heartrending and engaging letters to an unidentified person whom he addressed as a ‘friend’. At some point it felt almost like an invasion of privacy. These epistolary entries cover a whole year in Charlie’s life when he’s fourteen, that sort of pivotal moment in one’s life when everything happens, it’s when you go through numerous “awakenings” and you have the perfect peer, the perfect book and the perfect song for that perfect ride towards infinity.
You know you’ve read a good book when you find the experience linger long after you put it down.
"After the dance, we left in Sam’s pickup. Patrick was driving this time. As we were approaching the Fort Pitt Tunnel, Sam asked Patrick to pull to the side of the road. I didn’t know what was going on. Sam climbed in the back of the pickup, wearing nothing but her dance dress. She told Patrick to drive, and he got this smile on his face. I guess they had done this before.
“Anyway, Patrick started driving really fast, and just before we got to the tunnel, Sam stood up, and the wind turned her dress into ocean waves. When we hit the tunnel, all the sound got scooped up into a vacuum, and it was replaced by a song on the tape player. A beautiful song called “Landslide”. When we got out of the tunnel, Sam screamed this really fun scream, and there it was. Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing.
And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.”
