Syboleth ch. 10: Schadenfreude

Garrett never would have expected things to line up as well as they did. But they did.

On the way home from the train stop he noticed a salvage shop that he had never had cause to notice before, and went in. They had an orange bucket for sale. A bucket was a bit of an oddity in modern-day San Francisco, as most people had slots for all necessary dispersion and disposal of water. It was a thrifty eight bucks, and he bought it. As he left the shop, he thought to himself it was a place worth remembering without any real knowledge of the greater implications of that thought.

When he arrived home, he was careful to deposit the bucket in a secret place outside for later retrieval so Charlie wouldn’t see. As he entered, he saw Charlie obsessing over his face in the mirror. On the other hand, his dots were at least makeup-free tonight.

“I have a date tonight, and I don’t need you messing it up Garry boy,” Charlie said. Garrett despised more than he could describe how Charlie would use Valerie’s pet name for him, but he knew that Charlie would just do it even more if he voiced any objection, so he had never acknowledged this hatred in words to Charlie. Instead, he would snort with derision every time it was used. He snorted now, and Charlie misinterpreted it as contempt for the sentiment.

“I’m serious. I want you to make yourself scarce if I get lucky and take her back home,” he said indignantly.

“I won’t say a word,” Garrett promised.

And Charlie was off, and Garrett’s plan sprung into action.

It took him three minutes to make the round trip to the nearest non-slot source of water in the building. It was a water fountain. He didn’t want Charlie to be able to monitor any water usage that would reveal he was the one who had set up the bucket.

When he returned home with the water, he put some ice and salt in and set his phone up very carefully in between a couple heavy books on the bookshelf sitting against the wall opposite the front door of the apartment. He had a Bluetooth remote for triggering the recording on hand, and he hid away into the closest closet to wait for Charlie to return.

Then, sheepishly despite nobody observing him, he exited the closet and went to his room instead to preserve the alibi he had planned. Then the door opened a crack, after he realized he would need to monitor when Charlie returned. Ideally he would have a live video feed from his phone, but he didn’t have the time to set that up right now. This whole plan was so ad hoc, but somehow it was coming together.

———

“WHAT THE FUCK, GARRY BOY!?” Charlie bellowed as Garrett hid in his room, having pressed the button on the remote ten seconds prior. Garrett had felt bad initially as the bucket fell, but that was erased from his mind after the pet name was used again. He heard noises as a woman’s voice shrieked, and the door closed. After a couple more seconds, he emerged from his room.

“What happened?” Garrett said.

“You’re trying to tell me you didn’t do this?” said Charlie, and there was menace both in his voice and on his face.

“Holy shit,” Garrett said, pretending to take in the surprise of seeing Charlie sopping wet. “No, I have no idea what’s going on. Check the water usage if you want!”

“Right…” Charlie said, and stormed off to the bathroom to dry off. “Clean that shit up either way.”

Garrett complied, and retrieved the phone at the same time.

When he was alone in his room, he reviewed the footage. A very attractive lady was entering the apartment behind Charlie. It was a self-evident fact that Charlie would enter the apartment first, and Garrett had had no doubt this would happen, but the lady was still splashed incidentally by the bucket, and this produced the scream.

In a choice that would eventually prove more intelligent than any Charlie had made in his life, the lady shrieked and left. Then Charlie saw Garrett coming out bemused, and Garrett pretended to be surprised by Charlie, and the whole thing all took place in under 90 seconds.

He sent it off to Valerie without an accompanying message, and waited for her reply.

It would be a very long wait.

———

Five days in, the read receipt had at least showed that she had opened the conversation and seen the video. If she had played it or not, he had no way of knowing.

Four thousand eight hundred fifty-six frames, sitting in their message history. The funniest shit Garrett had ever achieved in his life, he was fairly certain, not that he would ever say so. And not a single response from Valerie after five days except a read receipt.

He wished she would at least let him know what was up. He considered what a second text might look like, and typed something up about hoping she was alright. He sent it off, and it was read more quickly this time but still to no response.

Now he was really worried, and it impacted his sleep.

But with caffeine, his daytime work of administering MRIs and all manner of content remained productive.

Despite the unsettling nature of the job.

Next chapter: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/work/Aet%20Lindling/Syboleth-ch-11-Clipped-161910