Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jasonlulu_2000]

Elizabeth and I are 18 now, and about to graduate. I think about our primary-school friendship, but some memories have blurred . What happened that day in the fifth grade when Beth suddenly stopped speaking to me? Does she know that I�ve been thinking about her for seven years? If only we could go back, and discover what ended our relationship.
I have to speak with Beth. I see her sometimes, and find out school is �fine�. It�s not the same. It never will be. Someone says that she�s Liz now. What happened to Beth?

What does the underlined sentence mean?

thanks

[redset]

The speaker is talking about their old friend Elizabeth, who they were apparently close to in primary school (in Britain that's age 5-10, or so, this mentions 'fifth-grade' but it should be around the same age range). At some point Elizabeth stopped talking to the author, and their friendship broke down.

The underlined part describes the author seeing Elizabeth sometimes, and in these encounters the author finds out that "school is 'fine'" - this implies that they barely speak now, and when the author asks about Elizabeth's life she's reluctant to really talk about it. Saying school is 'fine' is really a way of avoiding talking about it, like a brush-off.

It also implies that there's no other conversation there - the author maybe asks about school, Elizabeth says 'school is fine' and that's as far as the conversation goes. When the author says "it's not the same. It never will be" it means that their relationship has completely changed, it's not like it used to be (when they were childhood friends) and it will never be like that again. When the author says "I have to speak with Beth" earlier in the paragraph, it implies the author wants to do something about it - actually talk to her, have a real conversation about what happened between the two of them and try to solve the problem. The polite non-conversations about school being 'fine' are not enough, and will never change things.

[jasonlulu_2000]

Fantastic reply.

Now I got it.