I can’t believe I’m doing this, I thought with gritted teeth.
From: [email protected]
Subject: Answer to your disturbing ransom note
Hi,
Yes, I’m in…as long as we aren’t wearing those stupid jingly hats.
- Lily
I shut my eyes and hit Send, then opened them and stared at the screen for a good while. I even clicked to refresh my empty inbox, although when no response appeared, I admitted defeat and went to take a hot shower.
It wasn’t until I was in dry clothes and about to reheat leftover chili that my phone lit up with a new email. I’d made sure to log in to my new account.
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Answer to your disturbing ransom note
Lily,
Welcome. No, we won’t be wearing festive hats (they’reNOT stupid). I thought about it, but unfortunately, they make noise, and we want to avoid noise.
Yours with merriment,
The Jester
PS: Please do not diss your invitation. Each one took a lot of time and patience to make. Crafting skills at their finest, no?
I rolled my eyes. Alex.
Who else is in on this? I asked.
Please not Blair Greenberg, please not Blair Greenberg…
A new email appeared within a minute.
Hard to say, he said.Not every fool has answered yet.
That was surprising. I’d thought for sure I’d be the last to respond.Alright…I typed.What are we doing then?
Oh, that’s confidential.
My thumbs flew frustratedly across my screen.But your note said that if we said yes, we should expect further instructions!
Yeah, the Jester wrote.FURTHER instructions. Not IMMEDIATE instructions.
I stirred the chili on the stove top.Same thing.
Are they, though?came his response when the chili had begun to simmer, and I saw that he’d included definitions for “further” and “immediate.”
The tips of my ears prickled, suddenly unsteady. The two words weren’t synonyms, but of course I’d known that. What was throwing me off was the message itself. It didn’t read like Alex. He wasn’t…a dork. Or at least a dork who used the dictionary.
Alex isn’t the Jester, I realized. It was someone else.
