Ten min­utes later:

Gil
Is it in this room?
Kiddu
Yes.
Gil
What color is it?
Kiddu
Yes or no only, and that counts as an inquiry.
Gil
Is it alive?
Kiddu
Yes.
Gil
Is it an insect?
Kiddu
Nope.
Gil
A bat?
Kiddu
No.
Gil
Human?
Kiddu
Um. Kind of.
Gil
Is it a God?
Kiddu
No, dum­b­ass.
Gil
Is it part of someone’s body?
Kiddu
Yes.
Gil
Kiddu! Why do you always have to be so gross?
Kiddu
You don’t even know what it is! And that counts as an inquiry. That’s thir­teen!

Gil feels some­thing crawl­ing on his scalp. He vio­lently scratches his whole head for a full minute.

Gil
Okay. Is this a body part that every­one in the room has?
Kiddu
As a mat­ter of fact, I believe it is!
Gil
A body part that every­one in the room has … is it usu­ally cov­ered?
Kiddu
Usu­ally.
Gil
Is the answer going to offend some­one in this room?

She hes­i­tates a moment with her response.

Kiddu
Pos­si­bly.
Gil
That’s it. I’m going to bed.

After work­ing so hard to keep the two of them from fight­ing, Gil refuses to let Kiddu pro­voke the native woman again.

Kiddu
Sore loser! Come on, let’s keep play­ing.
Gil
No. I hate you.
Kiddu
Fine. I hate you too, Gilly Boy.

Gil falls over on his side. The mat­tress feels like it’s crawl­ing with mites on the inside, but at least it’s dry. He has no pil­low, so he tucks his head into the crook of his arm and closes his eyes.

Kiddu
I’m just kid­ding Gil. I love you!

In spite of him­self, he smiles.

Kiddu
By the way, the cor­rect answer was vagina.
Gil
Wait a minute—

Kiddu’s sti­fled laugh­ter sounds some­thing like a mouse squeak­ing. It goes on for so long that Gil won­ders if there really is a mouse squeak­ing in the other cell.

As he lays there he sud­denly feels more exhausted than he’s ever felt before. His mind is still rac­ing, but his body decides of its own accord that it’s time for sleep.

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