Look Both Ways

This story was going to start like the best stories: with a school bus falling out of the sky. But since nobody saw the bus fall, this story will instead start like the good ones, with boogers. Jasmine Jordan tells her friend Terrence Jordan, or TJ, to get “them nasty, half-baked goblins” out of his nose, using the same tone her mother uses to tell Jasmine to take out her earbuds and listen—or else. TJ and Jasmine have been best friends for six years, since TJ moved three houses down from Jasmine on Marston Street. That’s basically forever.

When the bell rings, Jasmine and TJ leave their life science class with Mr. Fantana. Spinning the dial on his locker confidently, TJ teases Jasmine for already “starting with [him],” even though she’s only been back at school for two days. Jasmine says she has no choice given how nasty TJ’s nose is. She concentrates as she spins her lock, as though the combination could change or her fingers could stop working. If either of these things happened, TJ would be there to help. TJ only shrugs and tosses his textbook into his smelly locker. The bottom of his locker is filled with empty snack bags that Jasmine has slipped in over the last few days. The kids call them “friendship flags,” and they let Jasmine say she’s missed TJ.

TJ finally uses the bottom of his shirt to wipe the slime and boogers out of his nose. He then tips his face up and asks Jasmine if his nose looks better now. She studies his nose, totally unconcerned that he just used his shirt as a tissue. The fact that he did so is disgusting, but he’s done more disgusting things, like pick gum off of the bottom of their shoes or slap a mosquito and then lick up the slime. She paid him a dollar to do that, and it was worth it for both of them. Jasmine says she can see all the way to TJ’s brain, and there’s part of it missing. But he’s good on the booger front now.

Slamming his locker, TJ says all people are boogers anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Jasmine says she’s definitely not a booger as she and TJ switch backpacks. His is light, while Jasmine’s is heavy with textbooks and makeup work, and TJ is worried about her muscles (she’s still recovering from “the attack”). They head down the crowded hallway and TJ says he has a theory. Boogers are just water mixed with dust. At this, Jasmine interrupts and asks where TJ heard that (he might have heard it from Cynthia “Say-So” Sower, who does nothing but joke). TJ says he saw it online when he was trying to figure out why boogers taste salty. Disgusted, Jasmine puts a hand up, but TJ begs her to not hold his past against him.

TJ continues that his hypothesis that if boogers are mostly water and dust, and according to Mr. Fantana, humans are mostly water, and if according to church God made people out of dust, then people are basically boogers. Jasmine and TJ go to the same church and sing in the choir together, but while they both love to sing, TJ doesn’t know he’s terrible and Jasmine is aware she’s a bad singer.

Having shared his theory, TJ looks pleased with himself. Jasmine says the theory is wrong, but TJ says she doesn’t have to believe it. He insists he should start teaching, since while everyone else is concerned with figuring out if aliens are real, he’s discovered that boogers are just “the babiest form of babies.” Jasmine can’t help but laugh, as usual. TJ can always make her laugh, and she appreciates it, especially after such a hard year.

The year started with Jasmine’s parents separating and her dad moving out. It wasn’t a dramatic or ugly separation, but there was the uncomfortable conversation around the kitchen table, some cursing on Jasmine’s part, and then the awkward weekend visits. Then, Jasmine had her “worst attack.” She has sickle cell anemia, a blood disease that can affect every part of her body. Usually it doesn’t give her much trouble, but this time, her entire body felt like it was on fire. She was in the hospital for a month with her parents hovering over her awkwardly (until the times when TJ showed up to break the ice and leave some friendship flags next to her bed).

Jasmine just got back to school two days ago, and the kids who have only given her attention because she and TJ are friends and “boys and girls can’t just be friends” now want to know everything about her illness. And now she has to catch up on all her homework, since it hurt to hold a pen when she was sick. This is also why she knows she’s not a booger: she’s not “gooey enough.”

Back in the present, Jasmine jokes that maybe it’s just boys that are boogers. She and TJ cross the street and head down Portal Avenue. They’ve been walking this way forever, but TJ has been walking it alone for the last month. Today is the first day that Jasmine’s mom has let Jasmine walk home after returning to school. TJ asks Jasmine what she is if she isn’t a booger. As Jasmine thinks, she studies the houses on Marston Street. Her mom always says this is an old neighborhood. Unlike the new, nicer streets with houses that all look the same (and boring), on Marston, the houses are all different and look lived in.

Jasmine says she’s the thing that Mr. Fantana showed a picture of in class earlier, that kind of looks like a booger: a water bear. TJ laughs and says those creatures look like his “old mother,” with its long nails and its “weird” mouth. He says it’d be scary like his old mother if it weren’t so tiny. Jasmine says that Ms. Macy isn’t scary, but TJ says Ms. Macy is his new mother; he also has a scary old mother and he doesn’t know his “mother mother.” Shuddering, TJ asks why Jasmine wants to be something so tiny that nobody can see it. Jasmine says that according to Mr. Fantana, scientists think the water bear is the toughest living thing—it can survive extreme heat, cold, and pressure, and it didn’t care when they sent it to space. It just keeps crawling, like Jasmine does.

TJ scoffs that that’s great if Jasmine believes that, but Jasmine insists that if he believes God made people out of dust, she can believe Mr. Fantana about the water bears. She suggests they could be stepping on water bears right now and not even know. At this, TJ glances down and scratches his arms, as though his body and the sidewalk might be crawling with the creatures. Jasmine has never realized that TJ isn’t afraid of anything he can see—but maybe he’s afraid of the things that he can’t “smash or smear,” like bugs or dog poop.

TJ and Jasmine reach TJ’s small house with the hole in the screen door that TJ’s foot made. Sometimes, he says that his feet “get mad” and do things of their own volition, so nobody should blame him for what they do. Jasmine always laughs, though she knows it’s not really a joke. They sit on the front steps and decide that maybe they’re both “water booger bears.” At this, TJ’s mom of the last six years, Ms. Macy, steps onto the porch in her work uniform. She kisses both kids on the head and asks how school was. They both say it was fine—and then she asks what they learned. She always asks this question. Jasmine and TJ look at each other—there’s a new booger in TJ’s nose—and say together that they learned nothing.