The Book of Masks (Abridged)

Where There's a Will

YOU WAIT AWHILE, and there is no sign of a search party returning, so you break out of your hiding place long enough to move your sleeping bag into your cubbyhole and crawl into it. Much more time passes, and all remains quiet. Tension drains away slowly, to be replaced by boredom.

The light outside has grown dim when you hear the door open. A soft voice: "Will?" You say nothing. "Will, are you here?"

"Caleb?"

"Where are you?"

"Back— Hang on. Ow!" You bash your foot again as you try to squeeze around the highest wall of your improvised fort. A face like yours watches boggle-eyed as you emerge. "What happened? Some of Robert's friends—"

"So I heard! What the fuck were you doing outside?"

"I went to get some ice! I thought I could make some more masks!"

"Well, you got spotted—"

"No shit! They chased me in here, I barely missed being found! What happened at the house?"

"A fucking farce! So I'm in the living room talking to that cousin of yours— Oh, and I think she likes me, we're really hitting it off— Okay, okay, I'll tell you later. Anyway, we're talking, and then these two dipshit kids come piling in, breathing hard and laughing, and they take one look at me and one of them yelps. And the other one's, like, Didn't we see you over at the elementary school just now? And I look at 'em and for a moment I think I'm gonna shit myself, 'cos why would they say that except they spotted you. But I only say, Noooo, and then he says, But we saw you getting ice and you were half naked and you looked right at us! And I look at them and then I look at your cousin, and she laughs, and I say, No I've been here all this time. Which isn't exactly true, since I did come back out to— Shit, where's your stuff?"

"I hid it after they went. But what happened?"

"So, they were all, But we saw you, and I was, Pfft, no! You saw someone else, and they got freaked and went to find your brother. And Umeko was, Who are they, and I said, Eh, friends of my brother— Hey, I'm real proud of that, I didn't say 'Friends of Will's brother.' And then them and Robert came out and they looked at me funny for a minute and went away."

"Are they still there?"

"No, they left. I waited until Umeko left too, and then I came over here." He frowns and looks at the door. "Crap, I hope they're not hiding out there watching."

"You should lock me in in case they come back."

"I'm not locking you in. That's a bad idea."

"But what if they come back?"

"And what if there's a fire? Just go back and hide wherever you were. You're okay, and I gotta get back."

"How are you doing with everyone?"

"We're fine. I haven't talked to them much. Only to Umeko. She's really cool."

"So you said. You weren't coming on to her, were you?"

"Do you want me to?"

"No! Anyway, she's gone, right?" You hug yourself nervously. "Just don't fuck things up with my parents."

"You're so worried. Me, I can't wait to see how I do. This is so cool. We're gonna eat in fifteen minutes."

"Oh, God," you moan.

"I told you, I won't make any trouble for you."

"Well, don't set any impossible standards for me, either! If my dad thinks I've become civilized or something, it'll really be hard when I go back."

"Want me to throw the mashed potatoes at your brother?"

"Just shut up and go home."

* * * * *

It is rapidly growing dark, so it is too late to make another mask, even if you got more ice. You find another electrical outlet near your "nest," so you leave your sleeping bag there and move your laptop to join it. You settle in for the evening with some movies before going to sleep.

You wake early—too early for Caleb to be up, certainly—and kill the morning by breaking down camp and rearranging furniture: It's either exercise for warmth or huddle in your sleeping bag. You create a little hidden tunnel back to that hiding place and rearrange the supplies. The WiFi hotspot is back on, and you get on the internet, and when that palls you rewatch one of the movies from last night. It's not until ten-thirty, and you're wondering what happened to Caleb, that you remember that today is Sunday and your parents will be dragging him to church. You settle in to be bored until twelve-thirty or one o'clock at least.

Luckily you fall asleep again for a little while, or else you'd probably go crazy from boredom, for it's almost two o'clock before there's a soft knock at the door, and it scrapes open. "Will! You down here?"

"D'you think I'd go out again after what happened yesterday?" you call as you scramble back out. "Where the fuck have you been?"

"Sorry, I got back as fast as I could. We went to church and then your dad took us all out to eat with your aunt and uncle and cousin. She had that duet in church with your mom today, you know."

"I know, I know. Can we just get you changed back? I'm sick of being cooped up in here."

"Sure, but you know, I got you set up on a date with Umeko."

You freeze. "You what?"

"Yeah! Well, not a 'date' date, I don't guess. But a coffee date. You're supposed to meet her at The Crystal Cave at five." He puts his hand under your chin and tries to shut your gaping mouth.

Even when you find your voice you can only sputter: "I didn't ask you to—! It's not your business to—! You were just supposed to go to my house and not get caught or make problems!"

"Did I make a problem?" he asks. "You're not two-timing your cousin, are you? Or two-timing someone by—" He jumps away. "What's the deal, Will?"

The "deal," of course, is that he's got you into something that sounds like it's more than just two relatives getting together, and you don't think you can handle that. Aside from the fact that Umeko still intimidates you a lot, there's the fact that she's your cousin (at least by adoption) and that's a whole weird area that you've tried to avoid while still enjoying her company.

And then Caleb has to say it: "Do you want me to go on this date for you?"

"It's not a date! It can't be! She's my cousin!"

"But you're not blood related, unless there's a whole other area to your family you haven't told me about. And if you're nervous about being with her, don't be. Just be yourself, like I was."

"But you weren't being yourself, you were being me!"

"Dude." He looks at you pityingly. "Based on what I'm seeing here, if I was being you with her, I'd've spilled food all over myself and got my arm stuck in a toilet. Just relax. So don't be 'yourself'. Be me being you." He grins.

You grab his face. "How do we get this thing off you?"

* * * * *

You have to look it up in the book. It's simple, actually, but it takes a little practice. There's a string of nonsense-sounding syllables you have to chant three times while gripping Caleb at the temple and pulling at his face. It knocks him on his ass for a few minutes, and it takes him a moment after he wakes to recover his wits and his strength, but otherwise his time inside the mask doesn't seem to have changed him. "Is there anything I need to know?" you ask as you dress. "My mom or dad say anything, ask me to do anything?"

"Don't think so," Caleb says. "Mostly it was just 'set the table', 'take out the garbage', 'don't talk with your mouth full'. Your mom tried talking to me at one point about something, but I told her I had to do some homework. Oh, I didn't, by the way. It kept coming out in my handwriting." And when you're both dressed and back to normal, he asks, "So, I got that other mask polished. You wanna finish it up so we can swap places at school tomorrow?"

"You finish it up if you want. I'm going home to see what the damage is."

"There's no damage!" he calls, but you're already running up the stairs to the truck.

He's right this far: If there is any damage, it isn't apparent when you arrive. Your dad's laying down for a nap and Robert is off in the neighborhood with his friends. Your mom is in the living room, doing needlepoint. Nervously, you land on the sofa opposite her with your phone. If someone would have noticed anything, and had anything to say about it, she would.

And after a minute she does speak, and puts her finger exactly on what you were afraid of: "You sure hit it off with your cousin this weekend," she says mildly without looking at you.

"Yeah?" You swallow, and cough when you swallow down the wrong pipe. "That was fun at lunch."

"Your aunt Mary even paid you a compliment when we were in the parking lot. She said you were looking very nice in your suit, and that you probably had lots of girls chasing you at school." Just the trace of a smile shows on her face.

You stiffen all over, including, to your dismay, in your cock. You also blush.

"I haven't heard you talk about seeing Lisa recently. How is she?"

"She's—"

Oh fuck! Lisa! You were going to call her to set up that movie date! Billion-to-one against Caleb having done that for you.

"We were talking about seeing a movie today," you say. "In fact, I need to call her." You scamper upstairs.

She sounds distracted when she answers, and you have to remind her about the idea of seeing a movie. But she's willing, and suggests a five-fifteen showing of a new art picture.

But you're supposed to meet Umeko for coffee at five. You can't be in two places at once.

Or can you?