Page 51 of Wayfarers

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she says.

“My point was simply that it would have been easy to catch me in a lie.”

“Do you only tell the truth when it would be easy to catch you in a lie?”

“Okay, I’m taking this as a sign that you are feeling better.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” she says.

“No. I don’t only tell the truth when it would be easy to catch me in a lie. Why, do I seem like a liar?”

“You seem like someone who doesn’t say everything that’s on his mind.”

“That’s not the same as lying.”

She puts her hands up. Surrender. “I’m not saying it is.”

“Is this a fight? Are we having a fight in our last hour of hanging out?”

“No, I just have all this adrenaline I don’t know what to do with.”

“Wanna arm wrestle?” I try to pass it off as enough of a joke that I have plausible deniability but not so much of one that there’s no chance she’ll say yes.

“Your dominant arm is broken.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

“I’m still kind of shaky.”

“That just means I’ll definitely win.”

At that, she laughs. “I mean, how can I deny you an easy victory? All right. You’re on.”

We walk to a picnic table in front of the store, sit, and square up, clasping hands. I like the feeling of her palm in mine. “Ready?” I say.

“Wait, what are the rules?”

“Okay, so if neither contestant forces the other contestant’s hand more than twenty degrees toward the ground within the first twenty seconds, a thirty-three-second period ensues in which—”

“Wait, are you being serious?”

“No. We just try to force each other’s arms to the ground.”

“To the ground?”

“To the top of the picnic table ground. I’m starting to feel like I might be getting hustled here.”

“Ready . . . set . . . go!”

We strain against each other. Sylvie is surprisingly strong so I don’t have to pretend too hard to draw things out, which was my plan. Then she stands for leverage, grasps our clenched hands with her other hand, and puts her weight on it.

I laugh, which weakens my grip. Soon my arm is at a forty-five-degree angle to the tabletop. “That’s cheating!”

“Did you not have an opportunity to explain the rules?”

“I did.”