Saturday, January 06, 2007

Dear Roger,

Roger and Annamarie (students at the tutoring center) are 14 and 12 respectively. They have been flirting with each other. In the looks department, Roger ranges between geeky and plain; Annamarie is quite cute. Cupid has armed Annamarie with a machine gun. By the time she is 16 she will have an alligator for a heart. I want to tell Roger to get her phone number now, to go wherever it is that relationships between 14- and 12-year-olds go (an awkward conversation, maybe even an awkward movie) because unless there is a change in Earth's axis, and the magnetic fields that bind Americans together shift North and South to East and West, a girl like Annamarie will never flirt with him again once high school starts. Grab the memory while you can. If you're lucky, it will change your future.