This choice: Joe should just stay on as Will • Go Back...Chapter #5Sleight of Hand by: Seuzz   "Kind of a new thing for you, huh? Not being popular," you sardonically observe.
Joe's lips peel back--an ugly look on the face of "Will Prescott". "There's not being popular, and there's being the most hated guy in school."
"Oh, c'mon."
"People hissed at me in the halls! People wouldn't look at me or talk to me! Your old friends pretend I'm not there. Even Justin's giving me the stink eye!"
"After what I did to him, I'm not surprised."
Joe's face curdles. "And I get to pay the price. You don't--"
"I know exactly what you're going through. Don't forget, you and Frank wanted me to return to that thing, and I had it on long enough to get some crappy memories out of it."
You point to his face, and he hunches with a furtive frown. "But that's not really the point," he says hotly. "The point is that I was supposed to be using this thing to infiltrate Westside for us. Getting close to people, snooping around. I can't do that."
"You don't have to. We can put this case to bed tonight, and you can go back to being that dumb guy all the girls at Eastman love."
Will's jaw drops. "You found something today? Ha! I told you it's back at--" He grimaces as you press your foot into his crotch. "Yeah, okay, no one likes to hear 'I told you so'. I think I'd handle it with a little more grace, though," he adds. He flicks an eyebrow meaningfully.
You flash a tight smile, and drop onto the sofa. "Stand up," you order. He draws back with a puzzled expression. "Stand up," you repeat. "Go on, stand up, put your foot on me where I had mine on you."
His eyes narrow, and he complies only slowly. You shift a little, getting comfortable under the boot. "Like I said," you continue. "I talked to Belinda Harrison after school today. She told me that there were two guys at Eastman with Sawyer when he had his accident." Will looks startled. "Taylor Mitchell was one. Scott Bickelmeier was the other."
His eyes harden. "She's confused."
"Then she's very firm in her confusion, and so are her parents, and so is their lawyer, and if the legal situation develops as it is likely to, then Salopek Aerospace and its legal team will be very firm in their confusion. Because Scott Bickelmeier made a special trip out to her house to tell Belinda that he was there when it happened, and that he is very sorry about it all."
Your friend's eyebrows wander independently. "What's this about lawyers and legal shit?"
"The Harrisons are going to sue Salopek, it sounds like, alleging that it was toxic fumes or something like that that put Sawyer into his coma. To defend itself, Salopek would argue that it was whatever Sawyer and his friends were up to at Eastman that put him in the coma. To do that, they will have to depose the witnesses that were there. Sawyer is in a coma. Taylor is in a coffin. And where is Scott these days?"
"Shoving me against lockers."
That catches your attention. "Really? Oh, but never mind. If he's doing that, then he's at Westside, and that means that's where the solution to the mystery is to be found."
You suck on a tooth. "I told you so."
Will glares down hard at you, and his foot shifts. You brace yourself for a hundred and fifty pounds of pissed off Will Prescott to land on your nuts, but he just exhales heavily and drops onto the sofa. "I don't remember her mentioning Scott," he mumbles.
"Well, to be honest, I don't either, and I got your memories." You drive a knuckle into your temple. "Maybe it happened after you talked to her."
"So we talk to Scott. Tonight?"
"Or to Taylor."
"Let's not add necromancy to our arsenal of investigative techniques."
"How about you get a bag of potato chips from the pantry? There's a yearbook on the counter. Bring it in too."
Will raises an eyebrow, but gets up with a grunt and returns with a sigh, dropping the bag onto the sofa between you and holding out the yearbook. "Caleb and Keith are cold-shouldering you still?" you ask as you flip through it.
"They're hostile. But at least they're not mean about it. Some of the others, though ..."
"What about James Lamont and his friends?"
"James is rude. Jenny gave me some sympathetic looks. Carson and Paul looked gun shy. Yumi jeered at me along with some other cheerleaders."
"What about Scott? Did he really--?"
"He jostled me hard today. If we go find him, I shouldn't look like this."
"What if we go as twins, then?" You've found the photos you were searching for, and are quietly smiling down at them.
"Ha. Having fun being me, huh? It'd be a hard thing to explain, though, if word got back to Eastman that Scott was seeing double when Joe Durras showed up at his house. I'm pretty sure he's still friendly with some of the guys there."
"Who are his old friends? We can pretend we were talking to them about him, and we wanted to come say 'Hi.'"
"Well, McIlroy, for one. But you'll have to go as-- Oh, that reminds me--"
"Hold that thought. Going as twins might be just the thing if we go see Sean."
"Sean? Sean who?"
"Mitchell."
Will looks at you blankly, and then his face clouds over deeply. "Mitchell," he says carefully. "Will Prescott knows the name, and I'm thinking of the face. And now that I am thinking of it--"
You lay the yearbook in his lap and point to the photographs.
"Fuck!" he exclaims, and closes his eyes. "What is this from, their junior year?"
"Yeah. It's sometimes hard to tell how much twins look like each other from their photographs, but--"
"It's close though. I even saw him in the hall today, did a double take because he reminded me of someone. But the penny didn't drop." He raises his knee and puts his chin on it. "You think Sean might be mixed up in it?"
"I've done enough thinking today. You tell me what you think."
He sniffs, and his gaze grows distant. "It's a very cynical hypothesis," he finally says.
"What is?"
"That it's Sean who died in that car wreck, and Taylor is hiding from the consequences of what happened at Eastman by pretending to be his brother."
"How do you think he'd react if twins showed up on his doorstep?"
"I dunno. He'd be polite? But it might rattle him."
"Rattle him enough to shake something loose?"
"Oh, we don't have to rattle him to loosen his tongue." He gives you a veiled glance. "Either of us can do that."
"I'd still like for both of us to go."
"You couldn't keep me away."
"Ditto. How is Will's relationship with him?"
"Sean? I dunno, I only been there one day and I don't think it's changed since you was him last. But I'd rather go as twins. Or you as--"
He snaps his fingers, but you interrupt before he can continue. "Actually, I wanna talk some more about what's going on at school. I wanna figure out a way of fixing that."
"How come? If this mask is going back on a golem--"
"I wanna make life decent for the golem. You've been complaining about what a shitty life it is. We should make it more pleasant for the thing."
"Why? It's not even a real thing," Will objects. "It can't feel anything. It can only pretend like it's got feelings."
"I wish I could be sure of that," you say. "I've been thinking. Are we really so certain there's nothing on the inside, that it's just a lot of very convincing mechanical pretense on the outside?"
Will leans back. "Look, I can remember how 'Will Prescott' was acting yesterday, before I put the mask on. But I don't remember any feelings."
"Yeah, and the funny thing is that I can remember how you were acting yesterday, but I don't remember the actual feelings either. But the mask wasn't sitting on any golem between now and then."
He looks very puzzled. "You don't remember what I was thinking?"
"Oh sure, I remember that." You bounce up and down on the sofa, preening. "I'm Joe Durras, and I'm smart and sexy and everybody loves me! It's really cool being Joe Durras!"
Your partner's eyes narrow, and he slowly flips you off.
"Do you remember what the golem was thinking yesterday?" you ask him.
"No. There weren't any thoughts. Except a very mechanical 'Go here' and 'Go there' and 'Do this'." He shrugs. "Programming."
You make a face. "Which is an awful lot like what it was like being me on the inside."
"Oh, I don't believe that. You used to daydream all the time. I don't remember the golem daydreaming. It's been watching a lot of movies. Pacing the bedroom." Dark amusement creeps into his eyes. "Jacking off."
"And why would it do that if it wasn't enjoying it?" you cry, hoping to cover your embarrassment with a triumphant invocation of evidence supporting your thesis about the inner life of a golem.
His amusement deepens. "Were you really enjoying it when you were doing it?"
If he's going to use a cheap shot against you, you'll turn it against him. "If I wasn't, then my inner life was a lot like the golem's, wasn't it?"
"Then I pity you. I enjoyed it immensely when I did it this morning."
Okay, that stings. "You didn't!"
"I did it, and I loved it," he gloats, and then turns smug. "It was a nice break from routine. I never do it when--" His face freezes. "You didn't!"
"No, I kept in character too. Now, who are we going to go see? Sean or Scott?"   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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