I eat in silence while Josh and Lisa talk. After dinner I do some homework. Josh watches TV. There’s a terse message on the answering machine from Danny, and several more e-mails from him, but somehow I keep putting off calling him back.
At nine fifteen I’m doing math homework in the kitchen when the phone rings. Josh answers.
“That depends. Who’s calling? Oh, yeah, hey, Sarah! How are you?”
He looks over at me, grinning. I mouth No! to him and wave my hands violently.
“He sure is,” says Josh. “Boy, am I glad you called. We were just talking about you. He’s sitting right here. He’s been hoping you’d call.”
I bury my face in my hands.
“Here,” he says, holding the phone out to me, then knocks it against my skull several times until I snatch it from him.
“Hello?” I say.
“Hi, Izzie!” says Sarah. She’s one of the only people besides my mother who call me that, which is what happens when you’ve had Passover dinner together every year since you were born. “Are you okay? I was just wondering if you needed those notes from math.”
She goes on. I answer with as few syllables and as little emotion as possible. All the while, Josh is pantomiming all sorts of perverse acts.
“What? Condoms? Of course I can lend you some condoms!” he announces in a loud voice, just before I say goodbye and hang up. He finds this very funny.
“I would not touch her if you paid me a million dollars,” I say, fuming.
When I’m done with my homework I shower, and then go out to the tent without being asked.
But tonight, when I fall asleep, I have a plan.