The Books They Gave Me

Krauss.

I met Zoe maybe the last month before high school ended. She is one of those people you meet and you can just tell everything to; like a journal for adventures, but instead she could respond. We talked about music a lot, as probably many teenagers do or did, I can’t say for sure anymore. I had been reading Kerouac, and I think she asked me one day about him. I enjoyed him, but Kerouac just isn’t for everyone, or at least wasn’t for her, I felt. In lieu of Kerouac, I promised her another grand book. But as time flew, as it does in the throes of love, I was leaving for Australia the next day, and failing to fulfill my promise to her. But Zoe has yet to miss a chance to enlighten me to a good book, and so as a going away gift, she gave me, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. There was one part that I remember:

(Leo and Alma as children)

One day Alma came confronted Leo about him watching her all the time. Leo thought to himself that he would leave for Australia before telling Alma why he watched her. And once she confronted him, he about to say goodbye forever, but instead he asked her to marry him.

I told Zoe about this part. I couldn’t see what she did, but I imagine her flipping through her copy of the book to find the story I told her about. I’ll always think of that book and story when we are apart.

And well, I already ran off to Australia once, but maybe I can still ask her to marry me one day.