The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Dodging Out of Dodge

Previously: "One Very Odd Protection Program" 

You must not have heard right. "What are you talking about, us being him, him being us?"

But Caleb only points at the portable behind you. "Let's move him there," he says, and lifts Gordon by the arms.

"No, tell me what you're thinking!"

"I'm thinking we need to move this fucker before someone finds him like this, and before that mask comes out of him," Caleb hisses. He tries pulling Gordon, but he might as well be pulling at a diesel locomotive.

You gape. "You slapped one of those masks on him?"

"That's what I said, now help me move him!"

It strains every fiber in your arms, back and heart, but you manage to move Gordon Black's massive frame into the portable. "Why the fuck did you jam a mask onto him?"

"To knock him out, you dope! Now, when it comes out of him, one of us needs to put it on. We need to switch bodies with him so he doesn't kill you."

You can't have heard right. "What are you saying, switch bodies with him?"

"Don't you sprachen zie English? Switch bodies with him, like we've been switching with each other. One of us becomes him, and he becomes one of us. That way he can't kill you." Caleb cocks his head. "Better be you, then," he mutters.

"Jesus! I can't pretend to be Gordon!"

"Sure you can! Just put on the mask! What's so hard about that?"

"Because I don't know how to be him, I don't know where he lives or how he acts, or -- And what do we do with him?" You nudge Gordon with your foot.

"Put him in your mask, obviously. There can't be two of him running around, and you don't want yourself to disappear. How would we explain it to your folks?"

You feel like you're about to fall into a fit of hysterics. "You mean we're going to show Gordon these masks and tell him has to pretend to be me?"

Caleb grabs you by the shoulders. "Calm down, Will. We'll just slap your mask onto him and run. He'll figure it out on his own."

Your voice is a shriek. "He'll figure out what?"

Caleb shakes you hard. "He'll find himself in your body, and we won't be around, so he'll have no choice but to pretend to be you."

"This isn't a plan, Caleb, it's a suicide attempt!"

"It'll only be for a couple of days!"

"We're not doing it!"

"But -- "

"We're not doing it! It's too weird and too dangerous!"

"It's too dangerous to leave him loose! Will, he's after you, he'll break your face!"

"He'll break everything else if we do what you want! No! We'll wait here until that mask comes out of him, and then we'll bust out of here. If he wants to find me later -- "

You gulp. Gordon Black has a long-standing reputation as the biggest and worst bully in school. Actually, he's worse than a bully, because with a regular bully like the Molester you at least know it's personal. Gordon's just a force of nature.

Caleb stares bug-eyed at you, then shrugs elaborately. "When you're dead I'll send flowers to your funeral," he says. "Better make it a cremation, though, 'cos when Gordon catches up to you, he's not going to leave enough of you to fill even a baby's coffin."

You can't suppress a shudder, but his warning doesn't change your mind.

* * * * *

You spend the rest of the school day under your own face, which leaves you feeling dreadfully exposed. In those classes without a seating chart, you sit in the back with your face toward the door so no one can sneak up on you; in the hallways between classes you dart through the crowds with your head down but on the alert for Gordon. You catch sight of him only once, at a distance turning into another wing, and you can't tell if his glower -- a common look on his face -- is deeper or uglier than usual. After the final bell rings, you stay late in the library until you're sure the path by the gym to the student parking lot is empty, so that you won't risk running into Gordon on his way into or out of post-class basketball practice.

"I see you made it out alive," Caleb says when you rendezvous with him at the elementary school. "I almost texted to see what the hold up was."

"Really." You're in no mood for badinage.

"Yeah. But I figured if you were healthy enough to answer you'd show up eventually, and if you weren't healthy enough to show up you wouldn't be able to answer your phone anyway."

"Funny," you say in a tone that conveys the opposite opinion. You unlock the basement door. "It's your fault anyway."

"No it isn't, I tried to save you. I did, too. At least until tomorrow, when Gordon -- "

"You and me are switching places again tomorrow, right?"

"Pah!" Caleb holds back at the top of the stairs a moment before descending after you. "Until all this gets sorted out, you're playing yourself."

"Except for tonight," you remind him. "You're supposed to play me at the library, and I play you to get that mask of Lisa."

"You can play yourself there, too. No reason we have to switch to do that."

"But -- "

"Don't you want to go on a date with her?"

Yes you do, and after thinking it over you have to admit that he has the better of the argument. "But wait until we're almost done, okay," you tell him. "I want to have the full date before you come busting in on us."

"Sure thing," he says, and continues in the same nonchalant tone: "So where's that mask we made today? Of Gordon"

You freeze. "In my backpack Why?"

"Then let's get it out and seal it up."

You can't believe this. "I told you, we're not gonna do a face swap with Gordon!"

"Who said anything about a face swap? I'll be wearing it tonight when I get the mask of Lisa."

He regards you with amused impatience as your brain catches up with his, and when you prove too slow he deigns to explain. "It'll be perfect. It'll look like it's Gordon who knocks her out at the library, and it'll be totally in character for him. So come on, let's get it sealed up."

"You know, it'd be totally in character if you did it under your own face."

Caleb smiles back sourly, and only snaps his fingers in reply. So you pull the mask out of your bag. "What are you going to do for clothes?" Gordon is at least head taller than you or Caleb, and far broader of torso, hip, and leg.

"I'll swing by a thrift shop on my way back home. Pick up a cheap set of shorts, t-shirt and shoes."

Just then you get a text from you mom: she needs you to pick up some things from the store. Caleb -- with more grace than is his wont -- lets you take off and agrees to handle the rest of the mask chores for you. "Wait until I text you that I'm ready for you to bust in on me and Lisa," you tell him. "Show up around nine, and wait for my signal in the stacks."

"I think I know how to do this, Prescott," he says. You're not so sure that either of you know how to do things, and with a sinking stomach you mount the steps out of the basement.

* * * * *

It's only a study date that planned with Lisa, but you dress up for it anyway. You can't forget what Eva said during one of your talks with her when you were pretending to be Caleb: If only Will didn't dress like he was still in the fifth grade.

So you put on a pair of clean slacks -- and not cargo pants, either -- and a long-sleeve dress shirt and loafers. You also make a point of shaving. When you're done you study yourself in the mirror.

And you wince, which makes it worse. You force yourself to relax.

You don't think you're bad looking. Your smile is a little tight and it seems to get tangled up with your teeth. Your eyes fall too easily into a squint. But you still look like --

You sigh. You don't look like you're dressed for the fifth grade. You look like you're in fifth grade and have tried to dress up.

It's the hair, mostly. It's stiff and wiry and doesn't like to lay down when you brush it, and when you wet it down it looks like it's been plastered into place atop your skull. Idly, you wonder what you'd look like with a buzz cut --

And then you have to relax your face again because it's bunched up into an even worse wince than before. Impulsively you jam your white ball cap onto your head, and that instantly ruins the "grown up" effect you tried to achieve by dressing up.

Fuck it. With a reddening face you stalk from the bathroom with your pack on your shoulder, and mumble to your parents that you'll be at the library.

* * * * *

"What are you doing here," you bluntly demand of the person you almost collided with. You were just stepping through the front doors of the municipal library when he came out of the men's restroom.

"I'm here studying with Lisa," Geoff Mansfield coolly replies. "What are you doing here?"

"The same. She made the date with me."

"She didn't make a 'date' with you, Prescott."

"Fine," you snarl. "Let's talk to her and find out what she thinks is going on."

And the upshot, you discover, is that this is to be a group project: you and Lisa and Geoff working on your papers for Walberg at the same table. You have to get a drink of water to cool down.

And on your way back you notice that Caleb has already stationed himself in the stacks. And he's already inside Gordon's mask, which means you have the chance to end this nightmare before it begins.

Next: "The Right Plan with the Wrong Guy" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 2)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)"