Page 153 of Stay Scared

“You spend your life noticing everyone else. You don’t like it pointed back at you.”

“I noticed that you noticed.”

“That doesn’t undo it.”

His stare holds mine. I wait until he realizes I am not moving on.

Finally he says, “I like aquariums.”

That answer is so far outside anything I expected that I almost think I misheard him.

“Aquariums.”

“Aquariums, yes.”

“You?”

Ash’s mouth flattens. “You asked.”

“I know. I just assumed you were going to say abandoned architecture or antique torture equipment.”

“I do not collect torture equipment.”

“You designed the red room.”

“That is not a collection.”

I laugh again, and irritation flashes across his face without any real heat behind it.

“Why aquariums?”

Ash glances toward the papers, catches himself before touching them, and looks back at me.

“They are quiet.”

“That cannot be the whole reason.”

“It is enough of one.”

I wait. His shoulders shift.

“The large exhibits,” he says. “The ones where the room is darker than the water.”

I picture him standing in front of blue glass without a headset, a radio, or someone waiting for an instruction. The image feels strangely private.

“Fish are your recreational weakness.”

“They do not require anything from me.”

“That might be the most Ash answer possible.”

“You wanted honesty.”

“I wanted something useless.”

“That information is completely useless.”

“Good.”