Dead and Alive

Coffin.”
    “A coffin would have a lid,” Erika said, “so I assume there’s not a dead man in it.”
    “Good. Jocko knows enough. Let’s go.”
    “Watch,” she said, and rapped a knuckle against the top of the case, as she had done on her previous visit.
    The glass sounded as though it must be an inch thick or thicker, and from the spot where her knuckle struck the pane, the amber stuff inside—whether liquid or gas—dimpled much the way water dimpled when a stone was dropped into it. The sapphire-blue dimple resolved into a ring that widened across the surface. The amber color returned in the ring’s wake.
    “Maybe never do that again,” Jocko suggested.
    She rapped the glass three times. Three concentric blue rings appeared, receded to the perimeter of the case, and the amber color returned.
    Regarding Erika across the top of the case, Jocko said, “Jocko feels kind of sick.”
    “If you get down on the floor and look under the case—”
    “Jocko won’t.”
    “But if you did, you’d see electrical conduits, pipes of several colors and diameters. They all come out of the case, disappear into the floor. Which suggests there’s a service room directly under us.”
    Putting both hands on his belly, Jocko said, “Kind of queasy.”
    “Yet the mansion supposedly doesn’t have a basement.”
    “Jocko doesn’t go in basements.”
    “You lived in a storm drain.”
    “Not happily.”
    Erika moved to the end of the case farthest from the door. “If this were a casket, I figure this would be the head of it.”
    “Definitely nauseated,” said Jocko.
    Erika bent low, until her lips were a few inches from the glass. She said softly, “Hello, hello, hello in there.”
    Within the amber shroud of gas or liquid, the shadowy form thrashed, thrashed.
    Jocko scrambled away from the case so fast that Erika didn’t see how he had ascended to the fireplacemantel, where he perched, arms wide, holding tight to the framing bronze sconces.
    “It scared me, too, the first time,” she said. “But I’d only been beaten once at that point, and I hadn’t seen Christine shot dead. I’m harder to scare now.”
    “Jocko is gonna vomit.”
    “You are not going to vomit, little friend.”
    “If we don’t leave now, Jocko vomits.”
    “Look me in the eyes and tell me true,” she said. “Jocko is not sick, only frightened. I’ll know if you’re lying.”
    Meeting her stare, he made a pathetic mewling sound. Finally he said, “Jocko leaves or Jocko vomits.”
    “I’m disappointed in you.”
    He looked stricken.
    She said, “If you were telling me the truth—then where’s the vomit?”
    Jocko sucked his upper and lower mouth flaps between his teeth and bit on them. He looked abashed.
    When Erika wouldn’t stop staring at him, the troll opened his mouth, let go of one of the sconces, and stuck his fingers down his throat.
    “Even if that worked,” she said, “it wouldn’t count. If you were really nauseated, truly nauseated, you could throw up without the finger trick.”
    Gagging, eyes flooding with tears, Jocko tried and tried, but he could not make himself regurgitate. His efforts were so strenuous that his right foot slipped off the mantel, he lost his grip on the second sconce, and he fell to the floor.
    “See where you get when you lie to a friend?”
    Cringing in shame, the troll tried to hide behind the wingback chair.
    “Don’t be silly,” Erika said. “Come here.”
    “Jocko can’t look at you. Just can’t.”
    “Of course you can.”
    “No. Jocko can’t bear to see you hate him.”
    “Nonsense. I don’t hate you.”
    “You hate Jocko. He lied to his best friend.”
    “And I know he’s learned his lesson.”
    From behind the chair, Jocko said, “He has. He really has.”
    “I know Jocko will never lie to me again.”
    “Never. He … I never will.”
    “Then come here.”
    “Jocko is so embarrassed.”
    “There’s no need to be. We’re better friends than ever.”
    Hesitantly, he moved out from behind the chair. Shyly, he came to Erika, where she remained at the head of the glass case.
    “Before I ask for the opinion I need from you,” she said, “I’ve one more thing to show you.”
    Jocko said, “Oy.”
    “I’ll do exactly what I did yesterday. Let’s see what happens.”
    “Oy.”
    Once more, she bent down to the glass and said, “Hello, hello, hello in there.”
    The shadowy shape stirred again, and this time the sound waves of her voice sent