Or, as they’re more frequently referred to in Randy Ribay’s novel After the Shot Drops, have you ever known or been a Bunny, Nas, or Wallace? The talented athlete who changes schools for a better chance at a future without telling your best friend, who then proceeds to give you the silent treatment and spends all of his time with his morally suspect cousin? Well, if you haven’t, consider yourself lucky that you’ve never had to deal with feeling betrayed by your best friend, who didn’t tell you he was going to transfer to a private school and leaving you to have nobody to hang out with but your technically distant cousin whose lack of judgment but compassion for a kitten never ceases to astound you.
I really liked Randy Ribay’s Patron Saints of Nothing and wanted to read something else by him, so I picked up his book about teenage male friendships, basketball, and consequences of decisions. After the Shot Drops is told in present tense and alternates between the perspectives of Bunny and Nasir as they try to rebuild their friendship and contend with the aftermath of Wallace’s poor decision-making skills. Nasir’s cousin is the least sympathetic character, but he’s the most dynamic. Bunny is more fleshed-out than Nasir, who comes across solely as narrative gel than an actual “person,” as far as characters in books can be more than how they move along the story.
On the whole, I liked Patron Saints of Nothing much more because I cared more about the narrator and the story was more engaging. I’m glad I decided to give After the Shot Drops a shot, though, because there were many passages that evoked such a sense of rightness of conviction… that yes, I’m sure more of us think this way but we might also avoid confrontation so not much is going to change in society, eh? For example, Nasir brings up the possibility with his mom that Wallace could live with them until he figures things out, but his mom is not enthusiastic.
Nasir narrates, “But I know from experience that her maybe is basically a no, and my heart feels a long way from good. Anger courses through me. Anger at Wallace’s landlord. Anger at his shitty parents. Anger at my own parents, my own small house. Anger at Bunny, St. Sebastian’s, and the unfairness of his world that tells us to help each other but thrives on us not helping each other” (43).
Bunny has a good moment with this observation as well with, “It’s kind of stupid, I know, but I remember thinking that our lives must be something like that. Like when we’re alive, we’re stuck down in that forest, lost in the trees, lost in the dark. But when we die, we find ourselves up on a ridge, looking out over every moment we lived. Everything would make so much sense. Point A. Point B. The path we took. The path we should have taken” (202).
The issues that Bunny and Nasir have with each other makes me think of this song by Corbyn.
You found me in the lost again
I’m broken but you’re in my head
I know it’s hard to let me in
All the fire but you’re in my bed
And I don’t know if it’s wrong or right
But you met me at the strangest time
Can we make it through the other side
After all I’m sure that you’ll decide
And I know you hated all the silent nights
Maybe I was selfish not too dignified
But I couldn’t say couldn’t say couldn’t say
Everything I tried so hard to hide
Cuz I didn’t have the heart to tell you what I’ve been going through
And I didn’t have the fucking heart to take you to a place that’s been so blue
I couldn’t tell you why
Why
I lie
Lie
Everyday was something new and the further I kept falling down
If something so beautiful can turn on me
Then what would stop the bleeding right now
So I know you gonna hate this fucking part
But I needed to find myself in something else so I
Wouldn’t break apart
And I never thought I’d see you again
Cuz I didn’t have the heart to tell you what I’ve been going through
And I didn’t have the fucking heart to take you to a place that’s been so blue
I couldn’t tell you why
Why
I lie
Lie
So go ahead and tell me everything you want
I’ll be just fine
I can hardly put together all the pieces
But give me the sign
Yeah I’ll be alright
I’ll be alright
I’ll be in just to what you want to say
I’ll figure it out
I’ll figure it out
You deserve to know before I break
Cuz I didn’t have the heart to tell you what I’ve been going through
And I didn’t have the fucking heart to take you to a place that’s been so blue
I couldn’t tell you why
Why
I lie
Lie