Juncture 1.6

We all looked at one another, waiting for someone to break the silence. I had some ideas for what “disease” would be fun to do. Finally, Jock broke the silence.

“What if we just don’t say anything,” He asked in his deep, accented voice. He had moved from France to Bristol Woods in the past year, and had managed to make enormous strides in English, to the point where you couldn’t really tell he had an accent unless you already knew about it. When nobody responded, he kept talking, “We don’t answer his questions, what is he going to guess we have?”

“After a few questions, he’d probably figure it out. That’s not really hard to guess, Jock,” said Kirsten, “It’d just be, ‘Hey, what sickness do you have? Oh, are you not talking, is it that you’re not talking?’” she mocked, bringing her voice low in an attempt to imitate Mr. Fetter’s baritone pitch.

“Well what idea do you have?” Jock asked

“Simple,” she replied, “Whenever he asks one of us a question, we answer with the opposite of the right answer.” She grinned

I couldn’t see a problem with it, so I said “That sounds good.”

A few people around the circle nodded their heads and muttered their assent. It seemed as though we all agreed, when suddenly an issue popped into my mind. I opened my mouth to say it, but right before I could speak, Simon piped up:

“No, no, no, no, no, that doesn’t work. What if he asks a math problem? He’d figure it out immediately!”

We lapsed into silence again as the more contemplative students thought about the problem at hand.

As the silence bore on, I was drawn back into thoughts of what had happened before this class. The sudden switch from weirdness to normality was staggering. I truly didn’t know how to react. I was just taking events in stride, not thinking too much about what was going on. But this? Having this substitute give us a game? It was so overbearingly normal that I wanted to laugh. But then I heard:

“Marc! Back again so soon?” So it wasn’t over as easily as I thought. I was still hearing the ghostly voices from what I remember happening in the dream. But they weren’t having any effect on me like they were before this class.

I shook my head. It was no use focusing on the odd memories. It would be better to just distract myself with classwork, and maybe not get kicked out this time. It shouldn’t be difficult, I wasn’t anywhere near as unhinged as I was last time. In retrospect, I had definitely over-reacted. Oh well, can’t change the past, I thought. Having come to that conclusion, I put my mind back to the problem at hand.

If Mr. Fetter asked a question that didn’t have an opposite, we wouldn’t be able to answer it. It clicked.

“This isn’t that difficult, guys,” I said, “We can answer the opposite to yes or no questions, and answer other questions properly. That way if he asks something like a math question, we can answer it right.”

Simon looked at me as though I’d stepped on his grave. He was clearly shell-shocked to see that someone had thought of a solution before he had. The thought put a smile on my face.

“That sounds good,” he said. “I can’t see anything wrong with it.”

“Cool, so should we call him back in?” someone asked from the cluster. It was Mo, a short kid who tended to stay quiet and out of sight in every class but gym, in which he would become a completely different person. He was incredible at any given sport we would play, and he knew it.

I shrugged, and said, “Sure.” Mo walked over to the door and pulled it open. He stuck his head out in the hall and looked out for Mr. Fetter, who was standing a ways away to the left. Mo pulled away from the doorway and held the door open, and Mr. Fetter walked through. All of the students were silent.

Mr. Fetter looked around, and said, “I forgot to add a rule for clarification. When I guess what the illness is, I will phrase it as ‘your symptoms are blank,’ and you answer with ‘confirm’ or ‘deny’. This will have no impact on the game. So, how are you doing today?”

Lars answered, “Fine.”

Mr. Fetter turned to face him and nodded. He aimed his next question directly at Lars.

“Did you all work together while I was out of the room?”

“No.”

Mr. Fetter nodded again, lapsed into silence for a few seconds, and turned to face Shani.

“What time is it?” Shani looked at her wrist, noticed she wasn’t wearing a watch, and then pulled out her cell phone.

“It’s 2:17, sir.”

“Thank you, Shani, and there’s no need to call me sir,” He answered, “Mr. Fetter will be fine. Now, Jacques, was it?”

“Everyone calls me Jock,” Jock answered.

“Alright then, Jock. What color is the sky right now?”

Jock walked over to the window, looked up, and answered, “Gray.”

Mr. Fetter nodded again.

“Simon,” He asked, “Does the illness involve yes or no questions?”

“No, it does not,” Simon answered.

Mr. Fetter continued; “Does the illness involve lying?”

“No,” Simon said.

Mr. Fetter turned and looked at me.

“Marc, how long do you think I was out of the room for? Just a rough estimate.”

I answered, “Probably like three to five minutes? I don’t really know, I wasn’t counting.”

“That’s fine,” he answered, “Mohammad, when I asked Simon if the illness involved yes or no questions, did he answer in the affirmative?”

“Yes,” Mo answered. I heard Simon sharply inhale, and I realized what had happened.

“You’re sure?” Mr. Fetter asked, “He answered my question with a yes?”

“Yes,” Mo replied. Mr. Fetter nodded, and said, “Alright, I believe I have figured it out.”