he didn't want ali to call him "dad," he wanted to be called "buddy," because he didn't want to be an adult. because adults like him don't understand that adults have to be adults so that children can be children.
joar would get into so many dress-related fights when spring came that principal might as well have moved joar's desk into his office. joar didn't care. it was worth every blow if ali realized she wasn't so damn alone, at least not all the time. who gets a friend like that? hardly anyone.
"i remember thinking that she was a perfect person. for a while. but then i saw her swim, and it passed. she used to swim like an octopus with cramp..."
"what are you going to write on his gravestone?"
"i don't know."
"he was super famous, it has to say something! like, something poetic!"
"he was also an idiot, so he suggested it should say: 'here lies a man who ate his vegetables but died anyway.'"
"you'll never put that. it's a shame that the boring one out of the pair of you survived."
"i love you and i trust you."
"what?"
"that's what i'm going to put on the gravestone. 'i love you and i trust you.' it's something we always used to say to each other."