The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

Staging an Escape of Your Own

Previously: "The Hero Gets His Reward" 

Thanks but I have to do it some other time, you tell Lacie. Already got plans sorry.

It sounds very abrupt, and though you want to pull yourself away from her and her friends, you also don't want to offend her.

But apparently you didn't, because about ten minutes later you get an email with an attached document: a coupon for forty dollars at her family's restaurant.

Or maybe you did offend her. Because didn't she promise you five coupons?

* * * * *

Anyway, it turns out that your lie about having plans was only a premature truth. Mr. Walberg sees to that.

It's on account of that stupid time capsule assignment. "Last call for submissions!" he bellows at the start of first-period. "Last call!"

Submissions? you wonder to yourself. For what? You look over at Caleb. He looks back at you, blankly.

Then you remember. Today is the deadline for bringing him something for the time capsule. And you've completely forgotten about it. You face-plant into the top of your desk and cover your head with your arms.

But playing ostrich isn't going to solve anything. So you hurry up to Mr. Walberg's desk to confess that you haven't got anything. But you do finesse it a little: "My submission is at home," you tell him.

"It's not gonna do you much good there," he says, "considering the time capsule's gonna be up here."

"Well, can I go get it, bring it to you after class?"

He regards you heavily, then sighs and says, "Get it to me by five o'clock. One letter grade off. Come in at five-oh-one, and it's an automatic failure."

Caleb's lip is curling hard when you get back to your desk. "Jesus!" he hisses. "You forgot it at home?"

"I forgot it period!" you hiss back. "I don't got nothing!"

He laughs, once, like a barking seal. "So what're you gonna do?"

"Go home and get something."

And that's when you remember that you do have something to bring in.

* * * * *

"Prescott, you are such a fuck up," Carson archly declares at lunch after Caleb has told him about what happened in Walberg's class. "Didn't you have, like, a month to do it in?"

"No, only a week."

"A week, a month," muses James Lamont. "Something like that you only need a day."

"Yeah, what would you bring in, if it's so easy coming up with something?" you challenge.

"Don't tell him," Caleb warns. "He's looking for ideas. Let him do his own work."

Almost you get up to stalk off.

It wasn't your idea to come eat with Carson and James, but you were going along with it until you remembered Carson's text from Sunday. But by then you were already on the quad in front of the school, walking toward them. First thing out of your mouth, then, was a transparent and panicked lie, telling Carson that you forgot to turn your phone on after church and so didn't find his text until late last evening.

"I don't need an idea, I already got something at home!" you retort now.

"You told me you forgot all about it,"Caleb says.

"That's right," puts in Keith, who has been listening to this argument with a shit-eating grin on his face. "You told me the same in second!"

"I did forget, but I got something at home. I picked it up last week and forgot about it."

"What is it?" Carson asks.

"A book. I found it at the used book store. They were selling it for two hundred dollars, but I got it for two."

"What?" Carson cries. Even Jenny Ashton, who has been absorbed in her phone, looks up.

"Yeah, it turned out it was defective. It was this book they had in the special collections cabinet. I was looking at it but I didn't see a price, so I took it up to them and asked, and they said it was two hundred dollars, but then they noticed that the pages were all glued together."

"The fuck?" Caleb says, and the others look incredulous as well.

"And that," says Carson, "is what you're putting in the time capsule?"

"Well, what's it matter? It's a dumb assignment anyway."

"Oh, fuck me, I can't stand this," James says, and he digs through his lunch bag. "You wanna know what you should put in the time capsule? A package of these!" He brandishes a crinkling plastic pack of store-bought cupcakes. "Yeah," he continues. "They'll dig 'em up in a hundred years, and they'll still be good. A perfect sample of the kind of shit we're putting in our bodies today!"

* * * * *

So that nicely solves the problem of what to bring Mr. Walberg for the time capsule, and talk returns to that book you found, as Carson wants to hear all about it. There's not much more you can tell him, but you promise to bring it to him tomorrow to look at.

Meanwhile, you got a text from Lacie, asking for confirmation that you got the coupon you sent her. You reply that you did, and you thank her, but it gives you a bad conscience to accept it while you are deliberately trying to duck her. Fortunately, you find a solution next period.

You are just coming out of math when you are jostled from behind, and turn to find that guy—Blake—from the Warehouse behind you. You do a double-take and stop dead in the hall, causing him to almost stumble over you. He frowns at you.

"Hey," you gasp at him. "It's me! From Saturday night, at the Warehouse? You, uh, helped me get a girl out of there!"

He blinks at you, and his frown clears up, though he doesn't smile.

"Oh hey," he says. "You have any trouble after?"

"A little. She was mad. But—" you hastily add as he nods and starts to push past. "Her family owns a restaurant, and her sister, she was so grateful for what I did that she sent me a coupon for a free meal out there."

"Cool." He looks over the top of your head.

"Well, she already gave me free food on Sunday, when I went out to see her, so I don't really feel like I need that coupon. And you're the one who did all the work. So, I can give the coupon to you?"

"Huh?" he says. From nearby someone shouts, "Hey, fuckin' comin' to practice or not?" "Yeah, I'll catch up to you," Blake yells back, and turns his full attention on you. "What are you saying?"

You explain to him again how Lacie is trying to give you a second free meal at her restaurant, but how you want him to have it. He politely demurs, but you insist, so with a distracted shrug he gives you his email so you can forward the coupon to him, and moves away.

Two good deeds, you congratulate yourself afterward. A free meal for him, and I don't got to see Lacie again, for me.

Except that escape turns out not to be so easy.

* * * * *

"You're going to pick up dinner for us," your mom tells you as you're coming in the door after school. She has been scrubbing the kitchen, and is wearing rubber gloves and a head scarf.

"I am?" you reply.

"Yes. Your father has to work late and he doesn't know for how long. So you're going to get dinner and bring it back, and his is going into the oven to keep warm."

"Alright. Um—" You look toward the stairs, and escape toward your bedroom.

"And you're going to that German restaurant," she adds.

That gets your attention.

The short version is that your dad loved those sausages and pretzels (and cake) you brought home. So you are going back there to get supper for tonight. Your mother will give you a list when it's closer to time for you to go. This complicates your own plans, but you get it worked out with her, so that you can get everything done in one swoop.

That's because you want to run another errand in town. Carson was very scathing about your story about that book, so instead of just bringing it to him to look at tomorrow, you want to give him a history behind it. And for that you need to talk to the guys at the bookstore.

So you push back your trip to Arnholm's, which is only a few blocks from the Bavarian Forest, until it's a little before the time you need to go out to the restaurant.

Things begin to pile up after that.

First of all, it turns out that Ted Arnholm has already left for the day by the time you get there, and you're left talking to Tom, his brother, who is very hazy about the matter. He doesn't know anything about the book—which you brought with you, and which you show him—and the best he can tell you is that he thinks the previous owner was out here last week, after you had taken the book (but maybe before? he isn't certain) and tried to buy the book back. He rummages through his brother's work station, but can't find the man's card, if indeed he left one at all.

So that's unsatisfactory. Then, at the restaurant, who comes in while you are waiting for your order but that guy Blake.

"Hey man," he says, and he's much more pleasant toward you than before as he takes your hand and tries to execute a complicated handshake. "Thanks for that coupon. We're using it." He cocks his head at Erik Carstairs, one of the football players, who is with him. "Yeah, 'sup?" Erik says before wheeling to gawk into the restaurant.

"Glad you could use it," you say, "and thanks again for your help out there." Blake smiles and observes that you must really like the restaurant; you tell him about picking up dinner. Talk oozes more than it segues, until you are telling him about the used book store, and showing him that book. He seems only vaguely interested in it, even after taking it from you to glance through.

And then you get a wild idea: Fuck Carson and his wanting to see the book. Give it to Blake as a further gesture of gratitude, and tell him he might be able to sell it back to the former owner.

That's all for now.

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"