Originally, I read an article about a girl who slept in a 3 by 3 cubicle, which may sound terribly fascinating, but it was written so vividly I felt like I had slept in a 3 by 3 cubicle, so it put me in a weird mood until I read “Bonnie and the Pontoon Sky” by Kevin Fuschich.
Kevin, (can I call him Kevin?), tells a story about sitting on a dock at a cottage that used to belong to his grandparents, but now he and his GF, Bonnie, are drunk and telling stories from their past while trespassing.
Whenever he describes his grandparents, he makes even their unflattering features seem endearing. He describes his grandpa “dozing off in the sun with his permanently maple skin, tiny mahogany nipples and silver chest hair that looked like a mess of tangled-up fishing line on one of his old reels.” Really, (or “reel”ly to keep with the fishing idea), I feel I totally know his grandpa now after just one sentence.
Even some things that gross kids like me out, let’s say moles for example, can become strangely beautiful when described as “sticking out like singing children wanting to be heard.” After quoting that I’m kind of freaked out because I’m imagining the moles are alive and screaming, and now I’m grossed out again.
I didn’t know what else to do but mindlessly nod in utter agreement when I read about the stones they collected from the edge of the lake: “We knew that tomorrow our stones would be dry, their beauty lost, that we’d laugh at their plainness…”. That is exactly what I do, especially with sea shells, but I take it a step further and put them in bags and when they dry I’m just left with a bag of sand and broken shells, and still I can’t part with them.
All of Kevin’s descriptions pricked emotions acutely enough to produce a strong image every time. Maybe that’s why I’m still bothered about the part where they found a carp in the woods with “fish-shit and sperm oozing out on our wrists, scales flaking off”. After reading about my worst nightmare I guess I don’t need to say much more.
Somehow, Kevin brings everything around to an end where after wishing Bonnie could have experienced his memories, they both “borrow” a paddle boat, and ride off into the “pontoon sky.”
(From http://www.anderbo.com . Found under “fact” heading.)
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