The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Bonding with Bhodi

Previously: "An Old Conspirator and a New Conspiracy" 

You quickly dismiss the temptation. It would be hard to get a stoned Caleb Johansson, disguised as Dane's mom, out of the trailer without causing a small calamity.

You rush forward on tiptoes with the blank mask and tip it onto the woman's face. Then you race back to the bedroom, where you pry the brain band out of Caleb. Joe has been squawking your name all this time on the phone, but only now do you answer him, telling him that you're making the mask now.

Caleb wakes before the mask comes out Dane's mom. He's groggy, but you slap some energy into him and tell him to get out to Joe's car before your victim comes to. A minute later you scoop the mask off Mrs. Matthias and race out the door. You dive into the front seat of Joe's car with a terrified laugh, knocking over a paper sack and scattering hot fries.

* * * * *

Your trio retreats to a nearby park to eat. There's some talk about the new brain band, and whether the marijuana haze will ever fade from it. Caleb finally makes the point that if the copy of Marianne Matthias is ever going to sober up, it won't be while no one is wearing the band. And when he adds that he can't stay out stoned all night, you grumpily surrender and put the band back on.

Which proves to be fun when you get the munchies. And it proves to be better fun when you point out that you'll need another mask for Dwayne Macaulay, probably, and that you're too stoned to make one. There's some talk about what to do about that, but you don't follow it, and are content to let them drop you off at the basement, where you fall asleep.

It's dark when you wake, except for a light in the corner, from which comes the whine of a car buffer. You wonder a little at that, but only lay very still, collecting your thoughts until the whine stops.

But you sit up—sore and stiff and cold all over—when the silhouetted figure rises and approaches.

It's Bhodi. "You awake?" he says.

"Yeah," you say, and scramble back from your one-time victim. "What—? Uh, what are you doing here?"

"Working on that mask. Helping out." He shrugs his lean shoulders. "Your friend's outside. I came with him, said I'd help."

"Oh. Uh, cool. Are you done?"

"I think so. I'm taking it out for him to look at."

"I'll come too." You swing your legs off the table.

"Are you okay? Your friend said you were pretty stoned."

"I was. I think I'm okay now. Better, anyway." You're still light-headed, and you wobble on your feet as you get up. Now that you can think more clearly, you realize that Mrs. Matthias did not smoke as much as you thought she had. Bhodi gives you the time when you ask him, and some calculations based on what he says tells you that you should be past the worst of it.

Outside you find the dusk almost gone. Caleb greets you and leads you and Bhodi over to his car where, under the dome light, he examines the sophomore's work. "Looks good to me," he says.

You're muzzy enough in the head still that you don't say anything about what's going on until Caleb asks if you're ready for part two of the plan—whatever it is. "Not that I'm complaining," you reply. "But I'm a little lost. What was going on while I was sleeping?"

"Joe and I stopped by at Lindsay's after we dropped you off," Caleb says, "to tell her how we were doing." His voice gets a little bit of an edge in it. "Bhodi was there. He decided he wanted to tag along. Joe had other stuff to do, so he helped because you were passed out."

Naturally, you're tongue-tied around your erstwhile victim, and can only give him a sidelong glance when you ask, "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. Better." He scratches awkwardly at a spot on his back. "So you and your friend are going to—" He licks his lips. "You need two disguises to get Evie back?"

You catch Caleb giving you a glance. "I think we have to. You want to help out? I mean, it's my fault—our fault—that all this happened. But if you—"

"I already helped," he says. "I worked on that thing." He looks around, as though he could spot something better to look at in the dark. "Is there anything else that needs doing?"

"I don't think so."

"Oh." He sounds disappointed. "I think I'm going to walk around a bit, then." He walks off on those stork-like legs.

He's gone about a dozen yards when Caleb jabs you in the back. "Go after him," he hisses.

"What for?"

"What do you mean, what for? Isn't it obvious?"

"What is?"

He snorts. "Christ. He wants to talk. Probably to you. He didn't have anything to say to me while we were alone." He shoves you when you start to protest.

So on tottering feet you stumble after Bhodi. It takes no time to catch up to him. "Hey. So, um—" The fuck are you supposed to say? "It was great of you to help out with the polishing stuff. That's always the shit part of—" You trail off, and feel yourself blushing all over. This is so pathetic. As if Bhodi, the kid whose life you tried to steal while forcing him to become someone else—and a girl, no less—wants to hear how glad you are that he helped out a little. And what is Caleb thinking, that Bhodi wants to talk to you? He wouldn't even let you apologize to him last night after you got caught.

But somehow your dumb teenage male brain manages to lurch instinctively toward the words without your intending them. "Look, I wanna say I'm sorry again about all this. It was a dumb and selfish thing to do, to you, to Evie, to everyone. I'm really serious about trying to put things back."

He doesn't say anything, he doesn't even nod. Instead, he stands with his hands in his pockets and stares off at the houses across the street from the old playground. "So if you want to hit me—" you say.

"I don't wanna hit you," he says. "I just want to understand—" Emotion strangles his voice. He looks down at the ground, and kicks at it savagely. "Oh, never mind."

"No, go on, tell me. Ask me. I wanna make everything up to you."

He kicks and he kicks and he kicks at the ground. Finally, he says, "Can you just tell me how come you did it to me? Why you picked me instead of somebody else?"

The question crushes you. It means he's still not forgiven you. Of course, why should he? In his place you wouldn't say something cheerfully dumb like No harm, no foul, no problem.

"Look, it wasn't personal. It wasn't anything against you. You were just, well, available."

His head sinks. His voice is thick with gloom. "So there wasn't anything special about me."

That's when it hits you. He's not asking because he's resentful. He's asking because he wonders if maybe you wanted to be him.

And there is actually a flattering answer to that question.

"Oh. Well, okay, actually, there was one reason I grabbed you," you tell him. "While I was being Evie I got to listen to all the girls, like Paulina, talking about you. Uh, you know how I asked her out on a date while I was, uh, being you?" You give him a moment to nod or speak, but he says nothing. "Well, it's because I heard them talking about you. They like you, Paulina especially. So I was thinking I could—"

You come real close to dancing backward, lest he hit you.

"I have kind of a hard time talking to girls, man," you say. "It's a whole lot easier when you know that they like you. And I knew that they liked you, so— So that's how come I picked you instead of Joe or Andy or Grant or someone like that."

It's so dark now that you can't make out his expression, but after a moment he raises his hands and grind them into his eyes. When he speaks, you can tell he's almost overcome with emotion.

"The thing is," he says in a very raw voice, "you let me remember those things you did, and you were—" His voice cracks. "You were better at being me than I was!"

You are too shocked to say anything but "No I wasn't!"

"You were! With Paulina! With Joe and Grant! In my classes. The way you— I wouldn't have hit Andrew! You know how you did that in Mr. Carr's class? I couldn't do that! It's like— Fuck!" he wails.

You pull him close, and only after you're holding him do you realize how instinctive it felt to pull him into an embrace. This isn't like you.

Oh, but it is like Marianne Matthias. You've still got her brain band inside you. Her instincts are helping guide you.

Then you remember the plan you made with Caleb last night, just before you got caught. You were going to make a copy of Gordon's personality and wear it, so that you had his talents along with your own.

What would Bhodi say if you offered to give him a copy of your brain to wear?

* To continue: "One Bhodi, Two Brains" 

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