Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (Aristotle and Dante, #2)

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

“I don’t give a damn what the world thinks or wants,” she said. “I don’t want to live in a world without you or Dante in it.”

I was also mad with grief. I know that sounded like a badly written line from a telenovela. But it was the fucking truth.

Your father once told me, ‘If anything ever happens to me, please don’t become my widow. Become yourself.

Maybe one day, instead of always having to prove they were real men, guys would study women’s behavior and start acting a little more like them. Now, that would be awesome.

Stories were living inside us. I think we were born to tell our stories. After we died, our stories would survive. Maybe it was our stories that fed the universe the energy it needed to keep on giving life.

High school students aren’t people. They used to be people before they got to high school. And they will return to being people after they leave high school. For now, they’re just taking up space.”

He kissed me and I kissed him back. Let the universe see. Let the sky see. Let the passing clouds see. He kissed me. Let the plants of the desert see. Let the desert willows, let the distant mountains, let the lizards and the snakes and the desert birds and roadrunners see. I kissed him back. Let the sands of the desert see. Let the night come—and let the stars see two young men kissing.

Teachers mattered. They could make you feel like you belonged in school, like you could learn, like you could succeed in life—or they could make you feel like you were wasting your time.

amen

“Ari, just have some coffee and be quiet. Sometimes it’s better not to talk.”

Cassandra pointed at me. “He’s private. You, on the other hand, are something of an emotional exhibitionist.”

she's so right LOL

“To Ari and Dante. Because we love that you love.”

Dante and I were beginning to understand that our love for each other wasn’t easy. And never would be easy. “Love” was no longer a new word. It was us that would have to keep that word new—even when it felt old.

I handed him a little box I’d wrapped myself. Which was a big deal because I hated wrapping gifts.

Ari lolll

But the question ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ is not just about what professions we choose. The real question is, what kind of person do you want to be? Do you want to love? Or do you want to continue the hate? Hate is a decision. Hate is an emotional pandemic we have never found a cure for. Choose to love.

“Look at you, Ari: You’re not afraid to love anymore.”

“Mom, you’re such a mom.”

As we drove away, I asked Sam, “Where would we be without women?” “We’d be in hell,” Sam said, “that’s where we’d be.”

“Love” was such a strange word. You really wouldn’t find the definition for it in any dictionary.

But who does a country belong to? Tell me. Who does the earth belong to? I’d like to think that someday we’ll realize that the earth belongs to us all.

“Will you tell him that it’s a beautiful thing to love in the face of all this dying? Will you tell him he’s very brave?”

The Ari I once was wouldn’t have had the courage to speak to a stranger in a foreign country. He was gone, the old Ari. I didn’t know where I’d left him—but I didn’t want him back.