Page 16 of My Own Kind of Person

He shakes his hands and dries them with a paper towel.

Then he’s passing by and now he’s stopped in front of me.

His hand holds out a paper towel.

“Oh,” he says. “I thought you were crying.”

I shake my head. “It’s a no-tears freakout.”

He lets out a laugh.

“I can’t cry,” I say.

“Like it’s physically impossible?”

I look at the wall behind him. “I have a friend who can’t burp.”

“Ever?”

I nod. “He can only gurgle.”

“But it feels so good to burp.”

“It’s a relief to burp!” I say mock-dramatically.

I look away from the wall and at the guy. His eyebrows are long and thin.

“Crying feels as good as a hundred burps,” he says. “It’s a release.” He’s not joking, I don’t think.

I drift out of my brain and into the present moment. The bathroom smells like pee and soap. From the hall, the muffled conversations of everyone heading home. In front of me, the face of this person I don’t know.

I find myself able to say something I wouldn’t normally even think.

“I haven’t cried since I was a kid. I cried when my mom and I moved out of our first real house. I know that. My mom said it was time to go but I kept rolling down the hill on the front lawn. She had to pick me up and carry me to the truck while I scream-sobbed. Maybe I cried the next time we moved, I’m not sure. I stopped crying about it eventually.”

He pushes his lips together and I brace myself for his response. Why would I say any of that? I can’t take it back or turn it into a joke, but if he makes fun of me I can decide it doesn’t matter what he thinks because no one here knows him anyway.

“Thank you for sharing,” he says. “I definitely relate.”

“You do?” The muscles in my forehead relax. “Why?”

His face lights up. “Is your shirt a Walt Whitman reference?”

I look down at the robot sounding its barbaric yawp. “Yep.”

“Yawp.” He does a big toothy smile. “That was corny, but I couldn’t help it.”

“Walt Whitman was corny.”

“Was he?”

“Probably.”

He laughs a little and I do too.

“Well.” He tilts his head to the side and gives a small wave. “See you in English.”

“English?”