“Liam,” Mia called, “you coming?”
We all turned around to look at him, treading water in the lake. Mia was already fully dressed, and I was wrapped in a towel, but Galen was still completely starkers.
“It’s okay,” Liam said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
This was strange. He’d wanted to go skinny-dipping even less than me. And he’d also complained about the cold.
Galen faced the lake, still completely naked, the towel at his side. “Oh, Liam,” he said in this really serious voice, “don’t tell me we have an engorgement situation.”
I looked back to Liam. Even in the dark, I somehow knew he was blushing. All Galen’s strutting and preening had had an effect on Liam. It was like me, except Liam hadn’t made it to his towel in time.
“Even in the cold water?” Galen said, wiggling his hips. “Damn, I’m flattered.”
Liam turned away again.
“Galen,” Mia said. “Knock it off.”
I didn’t know what to say. Galen was joking. Wasn’t he? Somehow it felt like a step beyond that, like some weird, complicated kind of bullying. Can a straight guy bully a gay guy by showing him his dick?
Mia led Galen away from the lake, even as Galen kept laughing, and by the time Liam climbed up out of the water, he was shaking. I couldn’t help but notice he was also still fully hard.
“You okay?” I asked as he started to towel off. Liam and Galen had never really gotten along. I guess they somehow threatened each other—Mia’s boyfriend and her best friend in conflict.
“I’m fine,” Liam said.
But he wasn’t fine. And I really couldn’t blame him.
• • •
The lake may have been warmer than I expected, but we felt the cold later, when we were back in the cabin. It took forever to light a fire, even with fresh wood, a stack of newspapers, and a big box of blue-tipped matches. The fireplace hadn’t been used in three years, so the chimney was full of birds’ nests and more spiderwebs that I hadn’t thought to clear. And even after it was lit, we all sat there shaking until the heat finally—finally—began to seep into the cabin.
“Man, I’m starving,” Galen said. “I’d kill for a pizza right about now.”
“We could order one,” Mia said, wrapped in an afghan on the sofa.
“Really?” I said. “How?”
Mia gestured over to the countertop. “The satellite phone. Things are different out on the Peninsula. Businesses have to be flexible. Half the people out here live in cabins in the forest.”
“It took us an hour to drive in here,” Liam pointed out.
“Yeah,” Mia admitted. “We’d have to meet the pizza guy, especially since we locked the gate. It probably isn’t worth it.”
I glanced over to where Mia had gestured at the counter where she’d put the phone earlier.
“Where’s the satellite phone?” I said.
I was certain it had been there before. But it wasn’t there now.
5
After a couple of seconds, Mia said, “What the fuck? Who moved the phone?”
We all kept staring over at the counter where the phone had been.
“I didn’t,” Galen said.
“I didn’t either,” Liam said as I nodded no too.
Still wrapped in the blanket, Mia got up and walked over to the counter. “I remember I put it right here.” She turned to Galen. “Didn’t I?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess so.”
“So someone must’ve moved it.” She poked around the kitchen, looking into cupboards and drawers. “Who was it?”
I couldn’t help but think of Mrs. Brummit and how she’d acted back in town. Now we knew why she was so upset—the clear-cut. Was she out here at her cabin on the lake too? Had she come into our cabin while we were skinny-dipping and taken the phone? But that was crazy. She was an old lady. Besides, what would be the point?
“It’ll turn up,” Galen said. “I’m starving. Come on, let’s eat.”
• • •
We had hot dogs and canned beans for dinner, cooked on the word-burning stove. There was no running water, so when we were done, we stacked the dirty pots and dishes in the sink.
After that, Mia, Galen, and Liam had to rub antibacterial ointment on their tattoos, so I went around the room lighting the candles and kerosene lanterns.
Then Mia broke out some bottles of beer that her older brother had bought for her, and we all gravitated back to the fireplace. Galen and Mia sat on the sofa together, and Liam and I took the chairs on either side. I couldn’t help but notice that Liam sat in the chair as far from Galen as possible.
“Hey, let’s play Three Truths and a Lie,” Mia said.
This was a party game I’d played a couple of times before. A person has to make four different statements about himself, and the rule is that three of the statements have to be true and one is a lie. Then the others try to guess which is which. I’m not really into games, but it was better than being reminded again how I was the only one who didn’t have a matching tattoo.
Galen had never played before. When Mia finished explaining the rules, he said, “What’s the point?”
“To see how good a liar you are!” Mia said. “We keep score. If anyone manages to pick out the lie, they get a point. And if anyone thinks a truth is a lie, then . . . wait. Who gets a point then?”
“The person whose turn it is,” Galen said.
“Right! See? You already got it!” She laughed. She’d just started drinking, but she was already a little tipsy. “Who wants to go first?”
“I will,” I said. I was all about living in the here and now, right? “But I need to think for a second.”
As I was thinking, I thought I heard Mia sigh impatiently, but it turned out to be her opening another bottle of beer.
“Okay, I’ve got it,” I said. I paused for maximum effect. “I won a contest in the first grade by reading the most books in a single year.”
“Truth!” Mia said.
“Why do you say that?” Galen said.
“Because it’s the first statement by the first player in the whole game. No one ever begins Three Truths and a Lie with a lie.”
I tried to hide my annoyance with a noncommittal smile, but she was right.
“Okay, number two,” I said. “I once found a fingernail in a can of soup.”
Galen looked at Liam, but he just shrugged.
“It’s another truth,” Mia said.
“How do you know?” Galen said.
“I just do.”
Mia was right again. Maybe it was a piece of onion, but it sure looked like a fingernail.
I leaned back in my chair. “I have six computer passwords. The most complicated one, for really important stuff, is banger98fg. And if it’s case-sensitive, the R and the G are both capitalized.”
“Lie,” Mia said.
And yes, she was right again. This was my lie. I did have six passwords, but the one I’d recited wasn’t one of them—I’d just made it up. Tipsy or not, Mia was good at this.
“I’m not even done yet,” I protested. “Can I at least finish all four statements before you decide which one is which?”
Mia waved me onward. “Go on, go on!”
But she’d already rattled me with her uncanny lie detection. And I’d already told my lie, so I had to come up with another truth.
Finally I said, “I did my seventh grade science fair project on solar energy.”
Almost instantly, Mia said, “Truth! The third one is the lie. The computer password.”
“I hate to say it,” Galen said, “but I agree with Mia.”
Liam gave me an apologetic grimace, then nodded.
I sank deeper into my seat. “Okay, okay, you all got me. I suck at this.”
“You don’t suck,” Mia said. “You’re just a terrible liar.”
How was being a terrible liar not the same thing as sucking? Wasn’t that the whole point of the game?
“Seriously,” I said, “how was I so obvious?”
“Well, for one thing, you have a tell,” Mia said.
“A what?” I don’t know why I was offended, but I was.
“Something people do when they lie, but they’re not aware they’re doing it. Almost everyone has one. Some people blink more than normal or cross their arms. You lean back, sort of trying to prove to people you’re relaxed, that you’re not lying.”
“I do not,” I said. But even as I said this, I realized that maybe I did.
“There’s one more thing,” Mia said. “A lie’s usually longer than a truth. People go on and on, offering more and more detail. They think lots of detail will convince others it’s the truth—or maybe convince themselves. Most people get nervous when they lie, so they have to sort of talk themselves into it. People use fewer words to tell the truth because it is the truth. They don’t need to dress it up or play games with themselves.”
I thought about the lie I’d told. Mia was right: I’d added that stuff about why some of my computer passwords are more difficult, and that the letters are sometimes case-sensitive, to make it sound more true. Is that why it had sounded false?
“I had no idea this was so complicated,” I said.
Mia laughed. “Are you kidding? The difference between a truth and a lie, that’s just about the most complicated thing in the whole world.”
“But now that you’ve told us all your secrets, you’ve given up your advantage,” Liam said.
“Have I?” she said, smiling mysteriously. “The only real secret is being able to read people, to really listen to exactly what it is they’re saying. And that’s a skill that can’t be taught.”
Liam blew her a raspberry, and Galen threw a beer bottle cap at her.
At the same time, someone coughed in the yard outside.
“What was that?” I said, sitting up straighter.
“What was what?” Mia said.
“Didn’t you hear that? It sounded like a cough. Outside.”
“It was probably an animal,” Mia said. “They make some weird noises, trust me.”
“It wasn’t an animal,” I said. “It was a person.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” Galen said.
I wanted Liam to back me up, to say he’d heard the sound too, but he just stared at me. I guess he hadn’t heard it either.
“I’ll go,” Galen said, meaning the game.
“Go for it,” Mia said.
But I got up and walked to the door, opened it, and looked outside. The darkness surprised me. The stars blazed in the sky, but that just made the lake and the rain forest in front of me look impossibly black. The last time I’d looked, it had still been dusk. The outside air was cool and wet—a sharp contrast to the stuffy, sooty air inside the cabin—but the only sounds I heard were the quiet gurgle of the lake and the irregular dripping of water from the trees.
“Close the door,” Mia said. “It’s cold.”
“I could swear I heard someone,” I said.
“Maybe it’s the neighbors out for a walk,” Mia said. “There’s a cabin farther up the lake, remember?”
“Mrs. Brummit? Wouldn’t we have heard her car?”
“It’s not just her. She has a big family. They don’t all come up here at the same time.”
A big family? Could one of them have taken our phone? But it was clear that no one else was thinking this, so I felt stupid saying it. We didn’t even know for a fact the phone was gone. We’d probably misplaced it.
I closed the door and returned to the others.
“I once rode Space Mountain at Disneyland with the lights on.” This was Galen, the first part of his turn. He didn’t blink or cross his arms or lean back. He’d barely moved at all. We’d all been watching.
We all looked at Mia, but she hesitated.
“I . . . don’t know,” she said. “That could be true.”
“I didn’t know what ‘kitty-corner’ meant until six months ago,” Galen said. Once again, he hadn’t moved at all.
And once again, Liam and I looked to Mia for guidance.
“Okay, this is how it’s done,” she said, and I couldn’t help but be a little offended. I mean, she was obviously referring to me.
Galen moved now, but only to wiggle his ass a little. “I’m not wearing any underwear right now,” he said.
Liam’s face reddened even in the flickering firelight. Mia laughed.
“And last but not least,” he said, “I once invented something that ended up being used by millions of people.”
“Seriously?” I said.
Galen smiled obliquely. Is that the right word? Obliquely? I think so.
Mia said, “Oh fuck, very clever!”
“What is?” Liam asked.
“That last one,” she said. “About inventing something used by millions of people? That totally sounds like a lie. Which means it’s not the lie. It’s a truth.” She gave Galen a respectful salute. “Clever strategy.”
“But how could Galen have invented something that’s used by millions of people?” Liam said. “Wouldn’t you know?”
“I’m tellin’ ya,” Mia said. “It’s a truth. Don’t fall for it.”
“Well?” Galen said, leaning forward on the seat, defiantly staring us down, even Mia, who was right next to him. “What’s the verdict?”
The three of us thought about everything Galen had said. He hadn’t given us much to go on. Had he put his boxers back on when he’d gotten dressed after skinny-dipping? I’d been focused on Liam at that point, worried about how embarrassed he was, so I hadn’t been looking. And Mia had dressed before Galen and was already walking to the cabin. None of us had seen.
“I think he rode Space Mountain with the lights on,” I said. “That one definitely sounds true.”
“And I can definitely see him not knowing what ‘kitty-corner’ means,” Liam said. This was a thinly veiled insult, but Galen sort of deserved it.
“Sometimes he does go commando,” Mia mused.
“So,” Galen said, “is that your guess? The underwear one is the lie?”
“No,” Liam said. “It’s the invention thing. How could it not be?”
I nodded, agreeing with Liam. That had to be it.
“I told you guys,” Mia said. “That’s not it.” She turned to Galen, trying to undress him with her eyes—something I was too embarrassed to do. “Nope,” she said. “I say it’s the underwear one.”
Galen stood up and unbuttoned the top of his pants.
“Take it off! Take it off!” Mia said. Now she was something more than tipsy.
Bumping and grinding, Galen lifted his shirt and slowly slid his unbuttoned jeans down. He definitely wasn’t wearing any underwear. He flashed us more than a hint of his light brown pubes before tugging his pants up again, laughing.
“Noooo!” Mia said. “You’re such a fucking tease!”
Liam shifted in his chair.
“So if that was a truth,” I said, “which one was the lie?”
Galen did his own dramatic pause. Part of me wanted to strangle him with his grin.
Then he announced, “Space Mountain. I’ve never been to Disneyland at all. But I saw this video once where they rode it with the lights on, and I could tell it was supposed to be a big deal.”
“Wait,” Liam said. “So it’s a truth that you invented something that was used by millions of people? What did you invent?”
“The watering gun,” Galen said.
“The what?” Mia said.
“It’s the spout of a watering can attached to a big squirt gun, like a Super Soaker. You use it to water hanging plants that are too high for a watering can and too far for a hose.”
“I think I’ve seen that in stores,” Liam said. “You invented that?”
“In the fifth grade. For my mom, when her hanging fuchsias started dying.”
“So you’re rich?” I asked.
“He didn’t say that,” Mia said.
I was confused.
“I didn’t say that it was my invention you see in the stores,” Galen said, and Mia nodded knowingly. “What I said was I invented something that ended up being used by millions of people. And I did. I invented the watering gun. And then someone else invented the same damn thing, and they ended up getting rich. Then again, I never showed my invention to anyone except my mom. And I was only using duct tape.”
I had to admit, this was pretty clever—both as an invention and as a strategy to play the game.
But Liam said to Mia, “Is that fair?”
“Absolutely,” Mia said. “Everything he said was literally true. We—or I should say you—just jumped to the wrong conclusion. But that’s exactly how the game is played. I love it when truths are only true from a certain point of view.”
Liam clenched his jaw.
“Really good one!” Mia said to Galen. “You’re a great liar. I’ll keep that in mind the next time I ask if you’ve ever cheated on me.”
He kicked back on the sofa, and I couldn’t help but notice that the top of his pants was still unbuttoned. “I’ll keep it in mind the next time I do.”
Now she threw a bottle cap at him.
“Mia,” Liam said, “your turn.”
She grinned like the villain in some Disney cartoon, like she’d been waiting for this moment all night. She probably had been.
She paused for a second, then said, “I am wearing underwear.”
We all laughed. Was this the truth? Who knows? When she’d been getting dressed, Galen had been facing the lake shaking his junk at Liam and me, so she was the last place the rest of us had been looking.
“I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars movies,” Mia said.
“Not even the new one?” I said.
“Nope.”
“Whoa,” Galen said.
“I don’t shave my legs very often, but when I do, I also wax my upper lip,” Mia said. “If I didn’t, you’d probably be able to see my mustache. No, you’d definitely be able to see my mustache.”
“That one had a lot of detail,” Galen said. “Which means it could be the lie.”
“Except that Mia just told us how lies supposedly use more detail,” Liam pointed out. “Which means she was probably setting us up. Which means it’s a truth.”