Page 51 of The Same Flesh
“Or Kai took them.”
“Why would he take them?”
“I don’t know, Jem.”
Jem didn’t say anything for several long seconds.Tean waited for the dismissal.
Instead, Jem said, “Someone moved the mirror.”
Tean glanced over, and Jem pointed.Indentations in the carpet showed where the mirror had stood previously.In its original position, it had been against the wall.Now it had been pulled out and turned toward—
The bed.
Tean stepped over to the bed, looking at it more closely this time.The bed was made, the comforter pulled up and over the pillows.But there were also wrinkles and depressions in the bedding.It was the kind of thing that happened if you made the bed and then sat down on it to pull on your socks.Or if you had a Lab who thought the bed belonged to him, and as soon as you made it, he jumped up to make sure everything was the way he liked it.
The depressions in the bedding, though, weren’t at the edge.They were near the center.And there were two of them, spaced apart six or seven inches.Too small to be where someone had sat.And too round to be from feet.
“What is it?”Jem asked.
“I think he got on the bed,” Tean said.He gestured.“I think he was kneeling on the bed.”He turned to Tean.“Why was he kneeling on the bed?”
Jem made a face.Then he got on his knees and tilted his head as he studied the comforter.Then, with a laugh, he said, “Eww.”
“What?”
“I think I know what he was doing.Do you have a black light?We can check.”
Tean leaned closer, trying to see whatever had caught Jem’s eye.Then he saw it: a few whitish-yellow stains that had dried and left the fabric stiff.They were almost invisible against the white of the comforter.“He was masturbating?”
“Choking his chicken,” Jem said.“For sure.Clearing the snorkel.The old hotdog handshake.”
Tean didn’t say anything.
“Uh, sorry,” Jem said.“This is super weird, and I’m kind of overcompensating.”
“It’s okay.”
“Do you think he was wearing his dad’s clothes?”
“Oh my gosh.”
“Should we take a picture or something?”
“I don’t know.I don’t think so.”
“But it’s gross, right?”
“Uh, yes.”
“And freaky.”
Tean nodded.
“And he totally wanted to bang his mom while he was pretending to be his dad.”
“Maybe we can just understand some things and not say them out loud.”
“But he did!And it’s super weird!”
