RED 2: A Trick of Mirrors [#Wattys2017]

20. Truth or Dare

The round was complete and each of them had thus exposed their eccentricities and little secrets. They resumed the game in the reverse direction.

Marco inquired to Eliana: "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Who would you take to a desert island?"

"Hmmm..." Eliana was about to say something and changed her mind. "John Steinbeck."

Her gaze persisted on Marco for an instant before moving on to Zoe: "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"What was the craziest thing you've ever done?"

"Censored or not?"

Cen-sooored! was the collective reply. Zoe shook her head with a naughty expression.

"On second thought, better not. Here goes my craziest PG-13 deed..." She waited for the protests to quiet. "When I was thirteen I went to school in my nightgown to win a bet."

Rebuffing the general insinuations, Zoe clarified the nightgown was not transparent and poked Jean-Philippe.

"Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"If you were to do something questionable, Jean, what it would be?"

"I'd put a tape recorder in the ladies' room to learn what women say about men."

Marco and Robert agreed and cracked up, whereas the women gave their tsk-tsk. Jean-Philippe didn't waste time and asked Robert:

"Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"Massage the foot of the next person."

"Here?"

"Right here, my friend."

The next person was Marisa and Robert dove without a word, seemingly crossed. She leaned on Marco and, uneasy, stretched one leg toward Robert. His hands reached her in a cold current near the bottom with an unexpectedly smooth touch. In the dream it hadn't been like that when she lay naked and Robert lunged at her body. Now his hands enveloped her ankle and landed softly on the top of the foot, sliding to its sole and, one by one, the toes. Above the water surface, Marisa laughed with the others. But the oddity of that contact elicited in her a secret tremor.

It lasted a couple of minutes. Having reemerged, Robert inquired straight away to Marisa: "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"What was your weirdest dream?"

She almost chocked, her amused smile dying on her lips. Marisa glanced at Marco and looked back at Robert.

"I dreamed... dreamed I was a butterfly dreaming it was me."

"Very clever," Robert spoke with feigned severity. "If I'm not mistaken, that's from a text by philosopher Chuang Tzu."

And it was left at that.

Marisa turned quickly to Marco

"Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

She welcomed his reply. She needed to gain time for recollecting herself—it wasn't the sun that made her cheeks burn.

"Give a bear hug to the first person passing in front of that tall palm tree."

The group turned to the beach and stared in the direction Marisa indicated. There was the tree with its green leaves proudly hovering above the others. Then all the attentions focused on the curve of the beach, which a big man covered in tattoos had just turned.

Five pairs of eyes fixed on Marco.

"Are you gonna do it or you quit?" Marisa teased.

"Quit, me? Never."

They watched as Marco walked out the water and waited in front of the palm tree. When the tattooed man approached, Marco called him. The two talked, Marco gesticulating, the stranger shaking his head with an air of doubt, then nodding and un-nodding. Suddenly Marco was engulfed by the tattoos. They hugged. Mission accomplished, they waved goodbye and the man set off on his way.

Triumphally, Marco joined the group in the water.

"Impressive. How did you manage to persuade the guy?" Marisa asked.

"I used an infallible strategy."

"Which?"

"The truth." Marco added in good spirits: "To make things easier, I told him to pretend I was an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time."

"He was quite authentic," Eliana approved.

They made another round and idled on the sand. Gradually, the group disbanded. Robert went for a swim and Eliana sat in the shade. Marisa, Marco, Zoe and Jean-Philippe drifted away collecting shells. The four wound up in the forest and discovered a stunning waterfall many feet high framed by the sky, dark rocks and foliage. Zoe remembered the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe and, playfully, the two couples kissed under the waterfall. Marisa asked Marco to fetch the camera for registering the pose.

He left and never returned.

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