Free The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews

original, said Thebes. She started doing the music from the shower scene. She told me that one time she’d pulled a Norman Bates on Min and it had gone badly. She was in the shower so I decided to attack her, she said. It wasn’t a good idea. It was a bad choice, like they say in Guidance, she told me, which I never go to any more, by the way, since Mrs. Zefferelli told us that ultimately we’re all alone in the world. Oh, said Thebes, going into one of her voices. Like, thanks, man! You’re the Guidance teacher and you’re basically, like, okay, kids, get lost, every man to himself, you’re a rock, I’m an island, we’re alone, we have no one, we die and then we rot. Scene.
    What happened with the Norman Bates thing? I asked her.
    Min screamed, she said. Okay, that worked. But then she stopped screaming and she sat down in the corner of the shower and started crying. I just stood there on the other side of the curtain and whispered that I was sorry and all that. I didn’t know what to do. And then I decided to stick my hand around the curtain and try to hold Min’s hand.
    Did you find it? I asked.
    Yeah, said Thebes, she took my hand and so we were just holding hands like that, with the curtain between us. And she was sitting down all naked and crying. My sleeve was getting soaked but I didn’t mind.
    That’s nice, though, I said. I mean…holding her hand like that. Like walking in the rain.
    And then I told her again that I was sorry for scaring her, said Thebes. I told her I was being Norman Bates, and she was all, like, she knew that, she just hadn’t been expecting it, that’s all.
    Mmm, yeah, well…, I said.
    And then, said Thebes, I realized my Norman Bates would never work if she expected to expect it every time. I mean the whole point—
    Yeah, I said. Yeah.
    Thebes spotted a motel, low-slung with lots of neon, a tiny outdoor pool and a basketball net. There was a permanent vacancy sign flickering on and off in the window next to the front desk and a sign that said No Repares Aloud in Lot. Logan shot hoops outside in the dark while Thebes and I checked in.
    He’s gonna have to stop that at eleven, said the woman behind the desk.
    When we got to the room we stood next to the bed and stared at it. Thebes still had half-moons of dried blood around the edges of her nostrils from being hit in the face with the Frisbee. Do you ever wash? I asked her. Am I supposed to tell you to?
    She decided that instead we’d all go swimming. She told me to go over to the window and look outside while she changed into her bathing suit.
    There were two people sitting in a car in the parking lot, an older guy in a suit and a girl with a ponytail and an orange ball cap. The girl was giving the guy a hand job. Her arm was flying back and forth fast, like a school kid rubbing out mistakes with an eraser. It looked painful. The guy’s eyes were squeezed shut.
    Tada! said Thebes.
    Hey, cute suit, I said. Let’s go! I tried to hustle her away from the window.
    You don’t even have your bathing suit on, she said. I’ll look away and you can change.
    No, I don’t feel like swimming, I said. I’ll watch you, though. I could throw things into the water that you could dive for. Hey, I said, did you know that right after you were born Min and Cherkis put you in a little pool and you swam, naturally, like a champ.
    Really? said Thebes. Were they trying to drown me?
    No, I said, of course not, it was just something that they’d heard infants knew how to do.

    Years ago I’d asked my mother the same question about Min. Had she been trying to drown me in Acapulco? She said well, no, she didn’t think so, Min had been scared and frantic and hadn’t known that she was pushing me under, that was all. After a while, I let the story stand. I hadn’t wanted to believe my version of it anyway.
    At our father’s funeral Min held my hand and