Closer Than You Realize

Chapter 8

Closer Than You Realize

Chapter 8

     After our hike up Mount Washington, I felt like a dynamic in mine and Adam's relationship had changed. He'd brought out a part of me I never knew I had and I think that in itself brought us closer together.

     Last period that day, Adam and I had English and Jackson was assigning us a group project.

     He was letting us work in pairs and pick our partners, but he was pulling names out of a hat to see who would choose first and so on.

     How unfair was that?

     I was waiting anxiously as he called what felt like every name but mine. Becky Miller, Jared Till, Kara Leonard, Haley Lear. None of whom chose me or Adam, which was fine, because the only person I wanted to work with anyway was Adam.

     When Jackson pulled Mae's name out of the hat, I never thought she'd be the one to separate me and my friend.

     "I choose Adam." She said quietly. She didn't separate us to be malicious, but nevertheless, Adam and I weren't able to be partners and there was only one other person I actually knew in the class: Tyson Flynn.

     The next name Jackson pulled, unfortunately, was Tyson's and guess who he chose?

     "I choose Lydia." He boomed as he looked me right in the eye with a smirk on his face.

     I rolled my eyes as he did so and a scowl immediately overtook my face. His smirk irritated me to no end and I was furious that I had to be his partner.

     For the rest of class, we were supposed to work on our projects with our partners.

     For the project, we were supposed to choose a long poem or a short story to analyze, write a biography on the author, create a newspaper including articles about the story, and create two ads that either related to the plot of the story or were used to persuade others to read our story. We also had to create diary entries from a character in the story, write a poem based on the short story, and a crossword puzzle using the analysis of the short story as the blanks.

     I chose Robert Frost's poem Home Burial. It was a relatively short piece, but it had a deeper meaning that I appreciated.

     The poem was basically a conversation between a husband and wife who had a strained relationship. The couple had recently lost a child, and after catching sight of their son's grave, the woman becomes distressed and angered the husband doesn't realize why she's upset.

     The woman attempts to leave the house, but her husband begs her to stay. He isn't sure why his wife is so upset and she is angered by his composure and interprets it as him not having a heart. Although they talk, there is still a distance between them, and as the poem closes, she opens the door to leave with her husband calling after her.

     I can't speak for Tyson, but I felt a connection to this poem, and the second I read it, it was like it was a calling telling me I had to choose this poem.

     Not only did I relate on a personal level, but, in a sense, the poem also related to the relationship Tyson and I shared.

     In the poem, the husband and the wife didn't understand each other. Neither could comprehend how the other could grieve the way they did and along with losing their child, there was a wedge driven between them.

     In mine and Tyson's case, neither of us understood each other, and until we did, we'd only drive the other farther away.

     Although honestly, at this point in time, I wasn't too sure he really cared either way, but I knew I did. I wanted to be friends with him and I didn't want a wedge of misinterpretation to drive us apart.