The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Comical Choices

Previously: "Becoming Unconnected" 

But that doesn't mean you're going to stay this way forever.

In fact, almost as soon as you're on your feet, you change your mind.

I'm a sophomore again? And a girl? Just like that?

Not that there's anything wrong with being a sophomore, or even a girl. But as Evie's mind surges into yours, you cower beneath the alien deluge.

I'm Evie Cummings and I'm a sophomore and I play soccer for the Westside JV squad because I was tired of being a dork and my best friend Melanie who's at Eastman now talked me into trying out for the team and I've got Hannah Westrick yelling at me all the time probably because she knows I've got a crush on Marc Garner and she wants to humiliate me because she wants him for herself --

A person who looks like Dane Matthias is still passed out on the locker room floor. You peel the mask off him, returning Evie to her old self, and strip off the clothes you'd put on. Then, still wearing Evie's face, you pull on Dane's clothes. They are way too big for you, but you have to get out of there, so you pull the shorts tight with both hands and run for your life with your head down, out the gym and into the parking lot, where you dive into the smelly back seat of Dane's car. You grab your face and rip it off.

* * * * *

The narrowness of your escape so frightens you that you abandon your quest and drive back to the school basement. It's a pointless trip, however, for Caleb is nowhere to be seen. You text him, asking where he is. home. y? he replies.

just checking

problem?

no. still looking. talk later

You toss Dane's cell aside, feeling very foolish. And yet your heart is still beating from that adventure.

This is going to be harder than it looks.

Because although you want to dive into someplace new and very far away from Dane and Chen and all that shit, you can't just lunge into someone the way you did with ... What was her name? You pick up her mask again to remind yourself. Right. Evelyn Sonia Cummings. A cute girl, and if you'd had a better idea of what you were in for, you might have stuck it out there.

But you need to prepare yourself for a jump. You need to figure out where you're going to jump before you go jumping in.

Thing is, you don't have a copy of Dane's mind to tell you who could get close to.

And that reminds you: You're going to need to make another mask before you can even get yourself into someone else.

* * * * *

"Hey, thanks for showing up," you yell up at Caleb after he's come in. "I need your help."

"You need lots of help, Will," he says as he saunters down the basement stairs. His expression is wary. "What are you doing back here?"

"I messed up, I have to make another mask. Can you polish that up for me?" You point to the mask you made a little while ago; the acrid stench from its production still lingers in the air. "I'm kind of busy here." You're bent over a metal band, carving runes into it.

"Leaving the scut work to me, huh? But what happened to the other mask you were taking out?"

"I messed up, got it onto the wrong person. So I have to make a new one, try again."

Caleb explodes "Jesus! You fucked it up? And now you want me to help you after you fucked it up?"

"I didn't fuck up, man! I just -- "

"How many of these fucking things do we gotta make, man? How many do we gotta make for you? May I remind you that I have yet to get any real benefit from -- ?"

"Whose book is it, asshole?"

He turns bright red. "If that's your fucking attitude -- "

"Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that!" You suck in a deep breath. "I'm just nervous is all. I mean, I have to get out of Dane's mask and into someplace else, and I gotta do it quick. So help me out, please? You help me make this one, to replace the one I fucked up, and I promise, I'll make the next one for you, all of it, polishing and everything!"

"Tsh!" He glowers, but drops heavily onto a seat. "Fine. But don't fuck this one up."

"I won't, I learned my lesson. I'm gonna be real careful, think real hard about what I'm doing before I do it."

"Uh huh." Caleb picks up the blank mask and the buffer. Before he starts it up, though, he asks what happened after you left.

"I wound up by the school, saw the girls' soccer team practicing. One of the girls came in off the field and I followed her inside and put the mask on her."

"A girl?" His jaw drops. "You were gonna turn yourself into a -- Dude!" He grins.

"Shut up. She was cute."

"That's awesome! Why didn't you stick it out?"

"I'm gonna come over there and -- "

"You're gonna sit there and take it," Caleb chortles long and hard. "How could that possibly be a fuck up?"

You hunch your shoulders and shrug. "I got her mask on. All her memories came rushing in. It freaked me out. 'Cos she's a sophomore and she's, um -- "

"She's what?"

"It was just real different, okay? Everything about her was different from what I was used to. And I guess I panicked. I pulled her mask off and ran out and came here. But I'm gonna do it different this time!" you exclaim. "I'm going to think about where I'm going, so it won't be a shock to me."

"Whatever. What did you do with the mask of the girl?"

"Brought it back. It's over there." You nod at a table.

Caleb stretches to pick it up. "Evelyn Sonia Cummings," he says, reading the band inside it.

"You know her?"

"Nope. But you said she was cute? Maybe," he muses in a puckish way, "maybe I'll take it home with me, change into it after I've locked my door and gone to bed. See what it was about her that scared the piss out of you."

You return his shit-eating grin with a glare.

* * * * *

All talk is suspended during the forty minutes it takes Caleb to polish up that mask, but you talk some more when he's done. He gives you a clue about where Dane might find some friends you could copy and replace. "Try the comic book stores. Or Arnholm's. I've seen him around those places. Or the vape shops. Christ, they probably see him around those places so much they're sick of him."

That seems like a good suggestion, and the timing is right, for it's early afternoon when you're done with the new mask. Caleb warns you that you'd better make this next one count, because he's not going to help you if you fuck up again.

Your first try took place at Westside High. For your second, you head across town, to Ginormous Robot Comics, directly across the street from Eastman High. There aren't many people there, though, and none of them pay you any heed, so you drive a couple of blocks over to King Kong Komics.

Jackpot. And then some.

"Dane!" someone yells from the adjoining sandwich shop. It takes you a moment to remember who you're supposed to be, and swivel on them with a grin. You know those guys!

It's Christian Knouse and his friends: RPGers. You don't know them real well, but you know their names and their types. The smart-aleck Christian; the dopey Howie Baylor; the goth-wannabe Braydon Delp; and Darrell Parson, who is like a sleepier version of yourself. They're spread around a table with some dice and worksheets, and they beckon to you with friendly grins.

Then there's three other figures who have turned at Christian's exclamation and are nodding at you in a friendly way. These you know a little better, for you share some classes with them: Andy Tackett and Karl Hennepin and Tim Gerard. These are creative writing types. Karl in his paint-spattered jeans and pullover and sandals is a would-be poet; Andy Tackett, despite his buzz cut, deep voice, and trim physique is a would-be writer; and Tim Gerard, with his curly hair and sensitive features is a ... Well, you're not sure what he is, but the girls all think he's adorable.

He's got one with him now. You don't know her name, even though you've seen her around. She's dressed down like them in a t-shirt and jeans and dark, badly scuffed shoes, with a ski cap pulled down over her long brown hair. She looks at you with intelligent curiosity from behind black-rimmed glasses.

"Hey, it's Dane!" You turn back to Christian's group. Only it's not his group calling your name again. It's another quartet, back near the register, and you've never seen them before that you remember. Two guys and two girls. They look very fresh and clean and somewhat athletic. It takes you a moment to figure out why that is.

Then you realize why they look that way, and why you don't know them. The two guys are wearing Eastman High letterman jackets.

Eastman High. If you wanted to get away Chen while staying in the same town, that would be a good place to go. Except for what you told yourself: You are going to know something about the person you're trying to become.

No one seems to hold it against you that you keep swiveling your head in something of a daze. Eastman High -- Far from Chen, but you don't know them. Hennepin's group -- Attractive, but some like the weed. The RPGers? Far from Chen, but kind of dopey.

That's all for now.

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