Page 82 of The Summer Show
“I know the answer,” I said, excited. “It’s a person—specifically ‘man,’ because back in those days men through they were the main characters. I mean, Odysseus was the main character of The Odyssey, but he was definitely inflicted with the ‘all men are main characters and women are NPCs’ mentality. So. My answer is man.”
“No one could ever mistake you for an NPC,” Nick said. “But are you sure?”
“You said you trusted me, right?”
The world and everything around us spiraled away, and suddenly it was as if Nick and I were cocooned in our own pink bubble. Nobody and nothing could touch us here. We were alone. And the way Nick was looking at me, all soft and tender, made me wish I had the strength to melt against him, consequences be damned.
He touched the shell of my ear and rubbed it gently between his thumb and finger.
I swear, I wanted to purr.
“I trust you, Kathleen. I’ve trusted you since you read to me on the plane. If you say you know the answer, go for it. I’ll follow you to hell and back, whatever the consequences.”
My heart soared. I was done for when it came to Nick Merrick.
I turned around to face the lion-bird woman. “Man.”
The walls around us fell almost instantly. The sphinx vanished, too. We were suddenly surrounded by thousands, maybe millions of cockroaches.
Holy crap …
I elbowed Nick. “Hell, you said?”
“I stand by what I said, even though roaches are worse than hell.”
“Memo!” I said through gritted teeth.
“Those are her champions,” the interpreter said in my ear.
“But the answer was correct!”
“Let me find out what happened.” Around us, roaches hissed. Their wings made a nightmarish sound, like two piece of paper rubbing together, as some of them took flight. “Okay, you gave the answer in English and the Sphinx only speaks Greek.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I would never joke about katsaridia.”
thirty
We made it to the center of the labyrinth after defeating the army of cockroaches. No, we didn’t kill them all, although some crunched under our soles as we bolted.
There were other trials after that. Puzzles. A pair of mimes that we had to beat at charades. Physical challenges. At one point the floor ahead of us fell away and we had nothing to get us across except a rope, luck, and Memo chanting in my ear.
We survived. Of course.
What was in the center?
A cow. And the judges were mad about it, too. According to Memo, the crew was supposed to acquire a real bull, but misunderstandings occurred and so when we made it to the middle we were met with a sweet, placid cow who plodded up to us for kisses and nose rubs.
They’re like big puppies, cows.
When the four of us stood in front of the judges, the accountant who could be a serial killer was sent home, leaving Sakis, a restaurant owner behind.
Now we were three. The odds weren’t in our favor. Chances were high that tomorrow either Nick or I would be cut.
* * *
Except that’s not what the fates—aka the producers—had in store. Before we could leave the labyrinth set, Mairi asked Nick and me to stay. The director stood in front of us, her scarlet lips curved upward in a self-satisfied smile.