42
That day Gon bought several more magazines for the sake of “collecting” the classics. He asked if he could rent them, and I reiterated that this was a bookstore, not a rental store.
“Okay, okay, asshole. I’m going to return these anyway. You know there’s no way I’m keeping them at home.”
He sounded much softer, despite the swearword. After a few days, Gon stopped by again, with the magazines. I kept telling him that there was no need for him to return them, but he grunted, “Shut up and just take them.”
“Too conservative. No wonder they were published in the old days. Too far from my taste,” he added.
I thought it would be pointless to push him further, so I accepted the magazines. I noticed some pages in the middle were missing. A few pages even had holes cut out in the middle. The headline of the magazine survived, dangling, which read, “Brooke Shields.” Gon glared at me, self-conscious.
“This was a very rare one. There’s hardly any magazines left with pages of Brooke Shields intact, especially in her prime,” I said.
“Do you have more of her pictures?”
“Wanna see?” I asked, pointing at a computer on the counter. I typed “Brooke Shields heyday” into the search engine and clicked the image tab. Hundreds of her pictures popped up. From her early career to her prime. Gon was in awe.
“How on earth can a human look like this.” He clicked on her pictures one by one with his mouth agape, but then suddenly jolted. “What the heck is this?”
The picture was titled “Brooke Shields Recent.” In her fifties, her wrinkly face filled the whole screen. While her youth may have faded, there was still some faint trace of her beauty. But Gon must’ve thought differently.
“Whoa, this is really shocking. My fantasies are shattered now. I shouldn’t have seen this.”
“It’s not her fault. No one can stop time, and people go through a lot in life.”
“Who doesn’t know that? God, you talk like an old fart.”
“Should I say I’m sorry?”
“Oh man, why . . . why Brooke . . . what happened to you . . . Dude, why did you show me this. It’s all your fault.”
That day, Gon vented at Brooke and me alternately, then he left without buying anything.
He came back two days later.
“So I was wondering . . .” he asked.
“What?”
“I’ve been looking at Brooke’s pictures lately. Not the old ones, but the recent ones.”
“You came here to tell me that?”
“You’re crossing the line lately.”
“I didn’t mean to, but I’m sorry if you thought of it that way.”
“Anyway, I was looking over her pictures, and it got me thinking.”
“About what?”
“About destiny and time.”
“What a surprise to hear those words from you.”
“Sheesh, did you know that even when you say the simplest things, you sound like a dick?”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Now you know.”
“Yes, thanks.”
Gon burst out laughing. Hahahahaha. I counted five ha’s split in one breath. What was so funny about my response? I changed the topic.
“Did you know chimpanzees and gorillas also laugh?”
“Whatever, man.”
“And did you know the difference between their laughter and ours?”
“What the heck? If you wanna show off, just go ahead.”
“Humans can laugh a lot in one breath, but apes can only laugh a syllable in each breath. Like ha, ha, ha, ha.”
“I’m sure they build nice abs,” Gon replied with a laugh. More like a snicker this time. Then he inhaled deeply and gave out a long exhalation, Pheww, as if to calm his unexpected laugh.
Something was different now. Something had just changed in a moment.
“So, destiny and time. What about them?” I asked. It was strange to have this kind of conversation with Gon but I didn’t feel the need to stop.
“I mean . . . it’s hard to describe . . . but like, did Brooke know when she was young that she would change? That she would grow old? That she would end up looking completely different from her youth? You know in your head that you’ll age and change, but it’s like hard to imagine, right? That thought just came to me. Sometimes the people who weird you out, like those homeless people in the subway station muttering to themselves, or those beggars who drag themselves around on their stomachs because their legs are cut off . . . they might’ve looked completely different when they were younger, you know?”