BING, BANG, BOOM. Six triangles on my essay. Black ink dug deep in the margin. Bing, bang, boom. A chain of black triangles. Didn’t know I was doing it. Making them. Linking them. Can’t stop myself. Why stop now? Might as well go to the end. Down to the last line. Seven. Eight. Bing, bang, boom. It doesn’t matter which book we read. The Red Badge of Courage or Of Mice and Men. She asks the same questions. We write the same essay. At least I do. It’s all the same triangle: Point of No Return Rising Action Falling Action Bang Bing Boom I felt bad for Lennie in Of Mice and Men. Lennie was set up. He had to do what he did. Even if it was an accident, it had to go down like that. It was all set in motion from jump. I put that down in my essay. Wrote it out, piece by piece. The rising action. How George set Lennie up. How he was supposed to have Lennie’s back but he didn’t. That was all Steinbeck. Steinbeck set Lennie up. Made him big, dumb, and too strong for his own good.
