Хэнк Грин - A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

“It’s a game,” one of them said, his voice shaking a little.

“Keep talking,” April said, her voice menacing.

“A reality game. It’s called Fish. We got a clue delivered to us. It said we should go pull over a Nissan Frontier and that two passengers would be inside, and that we were to pull them over and hold them and it would fast-track us to the destination.”

“The destination?” April asked.

“We don’t know what it is, we just know everyone who’s completed it won’t shut up about how great it is. It seemed fairly harmless, we assumed you were in on it! That’s usually how it works!”

“Jesus,” I said.

“Fuck, how much have I missed?” April sounded resigned. And tired.

“A lot. I can explain … part of it at least,” I said.

“We have to go,” she said over her shoulder as she was walking to the truck.

I left the officers handcuffed to each other with a wrecked car and got back in the Nissan.

“Why does it smell like vomit in here?” I asked.

“I vomited. But I stayed conscious this time, so that seems like an improvement.” I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Are you OK? Your …” And then I stopped talking because I was about to say “your face” and that seemed wrong.

“I have no idea. I have no fucking idea.” And then she seemed to instantly calm down. “I don’t know. We have to run. Is there anywhere you can go that they don’t know about? Do you know anyone with a car we can buy?”

“You want to buy a car?”

“Yes, from someone who isn’t a clear relation to you. Someone that won’t get sucked into this.”

“You want to buy a car at eleven at night?”

“And, if possible, eat something. Maybe get some coffee.”

Coffee gave me the idea. I pulled out my phone and called Derek from the Dream Bean.

“Maya? Is everything OK?” He sounded groggy.

“No, not really. I need to come over.”

I could hear him talking to his wife in the background. They exchanged a few sentences and then he came back.

“It’s …” he said, but I cut him off before he could finish.

“I know. It’s important. Trust me.”

“OK,” he sighed. “OK.”

“I’ll be there soon,” I said. “Thank you for this. I’m sorry. I wouldn’t bother you if it wasn’t important, I’ll explain when I get there.”

I hung up, and before I could ask April any questions she said, “Can we listen to some music?”

“Yeah, sure.” I reached for the radio, but before I touched it, an R.E.M. song started playing out of the speakers.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” April said. “I’m not doing it on purpose.”

It was a ten-minute drive, but I avoided major roads, so it took fifteen.

“Oh, thank god,” April said as I pulled up to Derek’s house.

“What?” I asked.

“Long driveway. They won’t be able to see the truck from the road.”

“Jesus, April,” I said.

“Maya, it’s not paranoia, someone literally just sent police after us and they knew our names. They knew exactly where we’d be, and I don’t want to find out what would have happened if we had stayed.”

I took a deep breath and let it out, trying to adjust my understanding of reality.

“How did you know that they weren’t just doing cop stuff? How did you know it was something else?”

“I checked the police department communications and the computer inside their vehicle.”

“But you never went to their car.”

“I did it with my mind. Is that Derek?” she said.

He was wearing a gray hoodie and sweatpants.

“Maya, please explain what’s going on,” he said as we walked up.

I looked at April, and she nodded, which I took as a sign that I should just be honest.

“April May is my ex-girlfriend. You will remember that she … died a while back, and I became unhealthily obsessed with finding her, and I just did and she’s standing right here. Some rogue cops pulled us over and put me in handcuffs, and then April locked them to each other. So now we need a friend and a cup of coffee and also possibly to buy a car from you.”

He handled all of that surprisingly well, but his jaw had gone a little loose in his head. “That,” he said, uncrossing his arms and pointing at April, “is April May?”

“It is.”

The light was not great, but Derek leaned in to look at her face. I could see his eyebrows knot together as he tried to understand the left half of her face, but after only a tiny hesitation, he reached out his hand. “April, it’s nice to meet you.”

April stood motionless for a little too long, but then she reached out and shook his hand.

“Come in,” he said.

We walked directly into the living room to see Derek’s wife, Crystal, with her hair pulled back wearing a Disney T-shirt and pajama pants. Her arms were crossed across her chest and she did not look pleased. “April, this is Crystal,” Derek said. “Crystal, this is Maya’s friend April May.”

Crystal’s hands dropped to her sides, her eyes roving April’s face.

Derek continued, “We’re going to make them some coffee and let them settle in. You two, Rose is sleeping, so don’t make too much noise.” I could see his eyes were jumping around to avoid staring at April’s face.

“Can I use your bathroom?” I asked.

They pointed me the way, and after I was done, I came back into the living room. April was sitting in the middle of the couch reading a big, wide coffee-table book that looked like it weighed twenty pounds. I sat down next to her and lifted up one side so I could see the cover. It was called Outstanding American Gardens .

I could hear Derek and Crystal murmuring in the kitchen. The words were quiet, but you could still hear the tension in them.

“Any good gardens?” I asked.

April turned her face toward me in the full light of the living room. I don’t want this moment to have been a big deal. I’d rather not say that it was unnerving and upsetting, but it was. I’d known every bit of her face, and my brain had to fight to accept this new one as April’s. But this was her face now. It wasn’t the face I fell in love with, but I guess you don’t fall in love with a face.

In that moment, I thought about how gorgeous she had been. It’s not a pretty thought, but I had it. She was still beautiful, but this was another thing. An uncanny beauty. I wanted to touch it, but I didn’t. I wanted to ask about it, but I didn’t.

Eventually, my eyes found home: her eyes, which were still undeniably April May’s eyes.

“Your left pupil is a little bigger than the right one now,” I said.

“You noticed that, huh.”

“Just now. Now that I had the time to look.”

A fear gripped me, a worry that this wasn’t actually April.

“The left eye isn’t real. Carl made it, like they made all of this.”

“That doesn’t mean it isn’t real, it just means it isn’t the same as the one you had before.”

“It doesn’t cry,” she said, which was a good deal more vulnerable than I was used to April being.

“Have you been crying?” I asked, eager to make the most of this moment.

“A little, but then it goes away.” She blinked, and a tear fell from her right eye. “Carl, he did something to me. Any time my emotions get strong, they switch off.”

This was reassuring—it made me feel less worried that this person might be some kind of fake. It also tracked well with April’s calm and successful attack on two law enforcement officers. I thought about how she had also known their names, and the names of their wives, and how Carl had obviously changed her in other ways too, but I didn’t say anything about it.

“You wanna look at some gardens?”