Page 20 of Make Me Scream

“No, I mean, make my own art, in Rat’s style. I mean, he hasn’t done anything in years. I’d like to think he wouldn’t mind if I followed in his footsteps, if I did it well.”

“Maybe,” Joel says. “Rat doesn’t seem like someone who’d care what other artists do, good or bad. But what aboutThe Ohio Zoo?”

“I’ll still work on it. Like, it can be what I do for Mundell, while my real art would be under some other name. Like Alistair.”

“You have a pseudonym?”

“Not yet,” I say, as a couple our age enters the cafe. While Joel and I make their orders, I think about possible names.

“More importantly,” Joel says after we’ve served the customers, “What sort of statement are you going to make, and how are you going to make it?”

“Oh, I already have ideas. You can’t imagine how many times I’ve daydreamed about what I’d do if I were like Alistair. I could be ready to do something in, like, a few days. Especially now that finals are done. Except, I can’t do it alone. Someone has to get it on video.”

Joel hesitates, as if considering what that would entail: recording some kind of strange, unpredictable real-world situation, and somehow not being too obvious about it. However, his contemplation only lasts a second, then he breaks out into a big, bright smile.

“Okay, Gwen. You’re on,” he says. “You said you’d model for my paintings; this is how I’ll repay you.”

Oh.

“Joel, I’m going to model for you anyway. Because I want to, not as a favor. You don’t owe me for that.”

“Yeah, I know. So I’m going to do this for you too, not as a favor…”

“You know this is different-”

“As long as I don’t appear on camera,” he finishes.

His mind’s made.

“That’s totally fine. But, you, ah, don’t want to run this by Martin first?”

“Why?”

I roll my eyes.

“You know. He’s not a fan of Alistair’s. What would he say about you helping me do, like, something in the same style?”

Joel shrugs.

“I mean, probably nothing. It’s your art. I’d just be helping out. You know, like whoever helped Alistair.”

He makes a good point there. A lot of critics believed no single person could really coordinate all the moving parts of an Alistair Rat stunt, and presumed that Rat was actually more than one person.

“What if we get in trouble?” I ask. Alistair Rat would have faced a variety of infractions if anyone knew who he was. I can’t promise something similar won’t happen to us.

Joel shakes his head.

“I’ll be careful,” he says. “If things get out of hand, I’m just a bystander and you will take full responsibility.”

“Fair enough.”

“Good. So, tell me about this idea of yours.”

I grin.

“Well, it starts like this…”

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