Page 49 of The Corruption of Hollis Brown

He sat next to Timothy every day now, and Tim hadn’t changed seats. The sneer he gave when he handed papers to Hollis on the first day had mellowed into a neutral expression. Walt had kept his own promise and didn’t talk to Timothy at all. Didn’t ask him for anything or look at him more than anyone else.

There was another girl in chemistry who had started talking to him more too. Clementine. She was blond with big watery blue eyes. She kept giggling at him and forced them into being partners for most situations when they needed one.

Hollis thought she was annoying, but Walt insisted that it was good to have at least one person other than Yulia and Annie who other people consistently saw him being nice to.

PE was also different.

Walt was athletic. He was using Hollis’s body, but he had the muscle memory to sew and the muscle memory for softball too apparently. Hollis didn’t say anything to him about it, but his heart burned with jealousy and sorrow.

Walt did not ignore it.

You could have been good at this.

Tuesday

It was easier to hold his hand open now, to curl his fingers closed and back open again.

But in order to reach his phone, Hollis had to have more control than that. He needed to be able to turn his hand over and walk it across the mattress, use the muscles in his arm to reach to his desk and pull the phone across the space.

He needed to figure out a way to open his eyes. Not so much that he’d wake Walt up, but just enough that he could see a sliver of light.

Then he could do two things: he could text Annie and Yulia for help, or he could spend some time doing his own research.

There was always the threat of Walt waking up and getting very angry, but there was no way in hell Hollis wasn’t about to try.

Sometimes, he fantasized about beating the shit out of Walt after he died. Exorcizing him out of his body, living out the rest of his life, passing surrounded by his loved ones, arriving at the pearly gates, hunting down this son of a bitch, and just tearing him to pieces.

The indignity of not going to the toilet alone was worth several elbows to the neck.

There were just some things about being a person that didn’t require a witness, much less the experience of sharing.

Walt acted like he didn’t care, but Hollis knew he would. If this were his body, Walt would care.

Sweat

Hollis wondered if Walt knew what it felt like to be on the other end.

Human beings were adaptable by nature. You got used to things; Hollis got used to this. It hadn’t even taken long, maybe a day or two.

Did Walt know that for an instant, when he poured himself into the space between Hollis’s body and his soul, it felt good? Shocky, like the relief after being electrocuted, deeply psychologically horrifying, but good all the same.

Was he aware of how light Hollis felt now? When they lifted his arms and legs it was like two people working together to pick up a heavy box. His own hand was so heavy when Hollis moved it by himself in the dark of night. He had forgotten the real weight of his own bone and meat.

Did he know Hollis could feel his feelings too? Not just the ones he sent on purpose either. That craving Hollis didn’t have a name for at first was Walt’s addiction to nicotine. He claimed to eat everything except bananas, but Hollis knew Walt didn’t like celery, and there was discord when they ate it because Hollis liked it.

Walt was ticklish, and that thing about not being able to tickle yourself was out the window. His own elbows had grazed his side during one of the reluctant hugs Annie forced upon them and Walt had to grit his teeth hard to avoid making a sound.

Did Walt know that walking felt like being carried? The jolt of each step, present and real, but the work of it all held at a distance.

How familiar was Walt with this? Did his other “rides” tell him? How being possessed didn’t feel like being puppeteered from above, or remote-controlled.

That it felt like having someone stand behind you while showing you how to play pool or golf or wheel-throw clay.

Their heat at your back.

Their breath on your neck.

Blush