‘The Cheerleader’s Kiss’ (A Scene from ‘Reunion’ Reimagined by Bing AI in the Style of Erica Jong)

Fifth in a Series of Reimagined Versions of a Scene from Reunion: A Story

I wrote Reunion: A Story myself. I put it on Amazon in the summer of 2018, when the world was burning and I was feeling old. A paperback from CreateSpace, an e-book from Kindle. A story about love and loss, youth and time. But it wasn’t new. It had been with me for a long time, like a ghost. I wrote most of it in 1998 when I was still young and hopeful. And some of it went back even further, to 1987, when I was a college boy. I wrote those scenes for a creative writing class at Miami-Dade, where I studied journalism and dreamed of being a writer.

The story used to be different. It used to be just Jim Garraty’s day, his last day of high school. It started with him waking up at 6 AM on June 14, 1983. He had a dream that day, a dream I had to write for a class. He had a friend, Mark Prieto, who was there with him through it all. And he had a moment, when he walked out of the school and heard a mockingbird sing. That was the end of the story. That was all there was.

But there was no Marty then. No girl who broke Jim’s heart and haunted his dreams. The dream was just a dream, a fantasy about a teacher who was young and hot. I don’t have that story anymore, but it must have been good enough. I got a B+ from my teacher, the same one who taught me English in my first semester. He liked my writing, he said. He said I had potential.

I rewrote Reunion in 1998, just for fun. I didn’t think about publishing it then. There was no self-publishing then. I changed the story. I added a frame story in the present. I got rid of the fantasy about the teacher. I made Marty, a girl who was like all the girls I liked in high school. She was the reason Jim was messed up.

I didn’t care about themes or lessons or intentions. I just wanted to tell a story. A story about Jim and Mark and Marty. A story about love and the study of war and bridges too far. That’s all it was.

Ann smiled once more. She looked gorgeous. I stayed there for a bit, still thinking how odd it was to see the star of the cheerleaders in jeans and a plaid blouse. She was very sexy. She leaned in and kissed me passionately on the cheek. “Goodbye, Jim,” she said softly. She looked at the clock on the wall, picked up her things and walked out of the classroom, maybe to collect more yearbook kisses.

BING AI CHATBOT IN THE STYLE OF ERICA JONG, BASED ON MY NOVELLA rEUNION: a sTORY

The Cheerleader’s Kiss

By Bing AI Chatbot, in the style of Erica Jong

I returned the yearbook to Ann Saroyan, the cheerleader (ex-cheerleader now) who had begged me to sign it. I had dashed off something banal: To Ann Saroyan: You were a great classmate in English this year. You made it bearable! Yours, Jim. I closed the yearbook and handed it to her with a bored smile.

Ann Saroyan – she looked out of place in ordinary clothes; I only knew her in her cheerleader costume – smiled warmly. Her hazel eyes glowed with excitement. “Thanks, Jim,” she said. She gave me my yearbook. She had written: Don’t forget me. Love, Ann Saroyan, Class of ’83.

“Thank you,” I said after reading her inscription and closing my yearbook. “Really.”

Ann smiled once more. She looked gorgeous. I stayed there for a bit, still thinking how odd it was to see the star of the cheerleaders in jeans and a plaid blouse. She was very sexy. She leaned in and kissed me passionately on the cheek. “Goodbye, Jim,” she said softly. She looked at the clock on the wall, picked up her things and walked out of the classroom, maybe to collect more yearbook kisses.

I watched her leave, and after looking around the nearly empty classroom – Mrs. DeVargas, my English 4 instructor, had split earlier to get some java so she could finish grading a ton of final exams in the sanctuary of the English Department office – I grabbed my backpack, stuffed my yearbook inside, and walked out into the corridor.