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“How long do you think you’ll be home?”
“I don’t know. It depends on how quickly he recovers. If that’s even possible.” Josh’s voice breaks. Just a little. A tiny crack in his otherwise smooth tone. “I was told he’s in pretty rough shape.”
Another vague answer, although this time Charlie’s not as quick to assume it’s intentional. Josh sounds sincere. Enough to give her a twinge of guilt for doubting everything he’s told her. She considers the possibility he’s telling the truth. If so, what does that make her? Paranoid? Heartless?
No, it makes her cautious. After what happened to Maddy, she has every right to be that way. Which is why she resumes her line of questioning.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she says. “What happened to him again? Heart attack?”
“Stroke,” Josh says. “I just told you that, like, fifteen minutes ago. Boy, you have a terrible memory.”
He looks at Charlie for the first time since the conversation began, and she notices a shimmer of suspicion cross his face. He’s on to her.
Maybe.
He could also be wondering why she’s suddenly asking so many questions. Or why she can’t seem to remember any of his answers. It makes Charlie add another item to her list of things to do, joining “be smart” and “be brave.”
Be careful.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” ends, replaced with another song Charlie’s heard only through the dorm room wall. She waits a few beats before saying, “Sorry about all the questions. I’ll stop, if you want me to.”
“I don’t mind,” Josh says, a hollow ring in his voice telling Charlie that might not be the truth. He might mind quite a bit.
“I’m just curious,” she adds. “I’ve only seen Olyphant as a student. I think it’s interesting to get a picture of the place from the side of someone who worked there.”
“Even though you’re not going back?”
“I might be,” Charlie says. “At some point.”
“Well, I can’t say it’s all that interesting from the other side.”
“I don’t remember seeing a lot of janitors around,” she says. “What kind of hours did you work? Nights? Weekends?”
“Sometimes. Also days. My hours were all over the map.”
“And you worked in classrooms?”
“And offices. Everywhere, really.”
Josh turns away from the road again to give her another maybe-suspicious-maybe-not look. It’s more than just his answers that are vague, Charlie realizes. It’s his whole persona. Everything about Josh is hard to read.
Now she needs to use it to her advantage.
“What was your favorite building to work in?” she says.
“My favorite?”
“Yeah,” Charlie says. “Everyone has a favorite building on campus. Mine is Madison Hall.”
Josh squints, uncertain. “Is that the one—”
“With the thing on top?” Charlie says. “Yeah.”
“That’s right,” Josh says, nodding along. “I like that one, too.”
Charlie waits a beat. Considering her options. Weighing which is smarter, braver, more careful. Finally, she says, “There is no Madison Hall on campus. I was just messing with you.”
Josh rolls with it, as she hoped he would. Slapping a hand to his cheek, he smiles and says, “No wonder I was confused! You were so convincing, yet I kept thinking,Is she making this up? I’ve never heard of Madison Hall.”