Judith's first lines:
“Hello? Mora? Mora, are you there? Can you hear me?”
All the doors have been closed, but for all I know, the George’s could be just outside, I try to make my voice and reply both sound natural, “Um, yeah. I’m here and I can hear you.”
Just barely, over the sound of my own heartbeat that feels like it’s whaling away at my chest way too loudly.
“Oh, thank goodness. They told me you fainted. Is everything okay? What happened?”
“I’m fine,” I fib, more or less honestly, answering the first question but ignoring the second as my tongue roots around in my mouth for a lie. “I just got a little bit…dizzy…I guess.”
No use trying to lie about that when she already knows I fainted, but that admission is already good as selling myself out.
My chest starts to feel hot and constricted, or contaminated with this nervous attempt at calm.
“Oh?” The tone is too sweet.
This is the woman who taught me how to lie, how am I supposed to trick her?
We’re playing hangman, but I’m the dummy, betting with my life, or my sanity.