With a Shrug, Jason and I Stripped

• “Here I am and in I’m coming.”
• frantic desire to throw his feet in the air
• a total of five times
• with a ceramic squirrel
• he gave a muffled buzz

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With a shrug, Jason and I stripped. We were twins after all, so seeing each other naked was just like looking in a mirror. It was a relief to be out of my burlap sack from the submarine.

We lined up behind John, with Tessa bringing up the rear. As I belatedly wondered where John’s escape plane could be hidden, and why its captain would insist on nudity from his passengers, all sounds from outside the hut ceased. The eerie quiet was breached moments later by waves of whispers from the squabbling Fire Eaters and TechnoPagans in the village.

“The King!” they whisper-shouted. “The King!”

There followed a ceremonial fanfare played upon honking clown noses, and then an all-too-familiar voice said, right outside our temple hut, “Here I am and in I’m coming.” It was either Jove or Jupiter.

Jason’s eyes went wide and I could read upon his face his frantic desire to throw his feet in the air and flee. I’m not sure where he picked up such an unusual sprinting technique, but I’d seen him use it a total of five times.

The sixth time would not be now, because there was only one way out of this hut and it led straight into Jove’s arms. Unless they were Jupiter’s.

Tessa leapt up and grabbed the rafter above her head, and pulled herself up onto it. In a snap, John, Jason, and I all followed her. The four of us yanked our dangling legs up just as the packing tape strips over the doorway parted, flooding the interior of the temple hut with moonlight.

I watched from above as my brother, still in his flamboyant ringmaster garb, rode into the room upon the back of his clown wife. I recognized them as Jove and Carla. Once they thought they were alone, Jove climbed down and Carla rose to her feet. Jove said, “Thank you my darling,” and presented her with a ceramic squirrel small enough to fit in her mouth, which is where she put it. She gave a muffled buzz of contentment.

Jove was so tall, his top hat was mere inches below our hiding place. If Carla looked up she would see us, and that would be a disaster.

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