…“Really.” Alvin questioned.

“Yes.” I answered.

“Please, when you open up the book, do not open it like this.”  I took another low value school paper back book and opened it wide until the two covers touched each other.   Returning to my book I ran my hand across the smooth cover. The scent of new book still wafted through my tiny slightly flaring nostrils.  “I want to maintain this smooth new look.”

Alvin agreed.  He reached for the book.  I moved it gently away from him.  I wasn’t sure he understood.  I turned the book sideways… “This is the spine of the book.”  I pointed to the spine and ran my finger down the spine.  “I want it to keep that smooth non-read look.”  I took the other low grade school paper back book and showed him the ugly varicose book veins.  “I don’t want my book it to get creased up and ugly.” 

I knew he had to be thinking, “So how do you do that?”  So I demonstrated to him the process as to how to read a book by opening it carefully, maybe only four to five inches wide so that you would have to tilt your head and slightly strain to see the last word on every line thereby maintaining the crisp, clean, non crinkly spine.

“It makes sense?“ I asked. Inside I cringed a little.  Was I being too much?  I was slightly pained because I was vulnerable and I thought the dude was cool, and he was my friend, and we would eat ham and cheese sandwiches on Wonder Bread for lunch together, and we both liked to read and we didn’t think a lot about Diana McGee.  We just had so much in common.

He smiled with his smile and said: “I understand Chris.”  Inside I heaved a big sigh and I slowly handed the book to him. He grabbed it a little bit too eagerly and stuffed it in his book bag.  Ouuuuch!!!! I winced again painfully with a slight wrinkled emotionally constipated smile.  I really did not appreciate the way he handled “The Black Stallion Challenged” and how he just threw it into his book bag all willy, nilly, silly, hill billy like…