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Once Den and Caroline were done for the day and had updated the gang on their progress in the afternoon, the main bit being bugging the fourth phone, the two of them drove home. Back in the motel the five of them decided to spend the evening in Ryan’s van so they could keep and eye on the monitors showing footage from Jensen’s house and hear if he had any phone calls. Ryan had plenty of big cushions in the back, of which he, Rachel and Lori sat on one each whilst Shannon and Lee sat in the front and turned to look over the seats. After the food had been eaten the onus fell once again on Ryan to come up with the entertainment.
“Okay then here we go. This is a good game. Each of us writes down something on a piece of paper that we have done in our lives, try to make it as noteworthy as possible and make sure its something that none of the rest of us already knows. Then we’ll mix them up and all look at them and we’ve all got to guess which statement belongs to which person. So for example if you’ve actually walked on the moon then you might want to write that down.”
“See now you’ve pinched mine and ruined it. I’ll have to think of something else now”– Lori said with a theatrical smile.
“Good job you didn’t use the example of hitting a walk off grand slam home run in the deciding game of the world series, otherwise you’d have ruined mine”– Lee joined in.
“Does this mean we have to think of something worthwhile we’ve done with our lives?” Shannon said. “Because that might take a while.”
“I know what you mean”– Ryan said. “But it doesn’t have to be an achievement as such, just something interesting will do, maybe you’ve met someone really famous or something like that.”
“Good, because I’m not much of an achiever!” Rachel acknowledged. Ryan handed out a piece of paper to each of them from his pad and between them they had five pens, then the thinking began. Some wrote something down straight away. Others wrote something down and crossed it out then put something else down. Shannon and Rachel were the ones that kept the others waiting but eventually they put something down.
The five things written down were, ‘I have run the New York Marathon’, ‘I can play the piano’, ‘I know sign language’, ‘I have driven from NY to LA’ and ‘I played tennis at college level.’
Then the guessing began, each of them wrote down on another piece of paper which statement they thought belonged to which person.
“All right then lets start guessing. We’ll all guess at each one. Then we can start owning up once we’ve been through all of them”– Ryan said.
“Who do we think has run the New York Marathon? That’s a tough one because could easily be any one of us. I’m guessing Lee. Since I think Karate people are nutty enough to do something like that”– Ryan continued.
“Not me man. I think its you.”
“I’m guessing Ryan too”– Lori said. “Although I’m not that sure.”
“I can see Shannon being more than determined enough to do something like that”– Rachel said.
“Actually”– Shannon said. “I think this might be a big surprise, I know that aerobic exercise is supposed to be especially good for asthmatics. And I really think that Lori has that sort of quiet steely resolve. That would mean that she’d fight her asthma by doing something like that.”
“Very interesting”– Ryan said. “So who can play the piano? I’ve got Lori down for this one.”
“I think this one is a surprise. I think Lee might play the piano to unwind after a hectic and energetic karate day”– Rachel said.
“I can see Shannon tickling the ivory”– Lori said.
“I think it might just be Rachel. I can see her playing it in some sort of rock chick way, maybe in a band”– Lee said.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“That’s the image I’ve got in my head too”– Shannon said. “So I think it’s Rachel.”
“It’s interesting that we’re not agreeing too much so far. We must be coming up with good stuff”– Ryan said. “Sign language is another good one. We all have to guess somebody twice along the way, to cover up for our own one somewhere down the line. So I think this one could be Lori. I don’t know whether I’m completely on the wrong track. I just thought that working in a library learning sign language might be useful.”
“It might be too obvious. But I’ve gone for Lori as well just in case my gamble on her running the marathon proves to be a bit silly”– Shannon said.
“It actually struck me as the sort of wacky thing that Ryan might do”– Rachel said.
“This is a tough one”– Lori said. “Because it could easily be any of us. Someone might know someone who is deaf. And that has lead to them learning sign language. I just started wondering whether Lee might have had to teach a deaf person at some stage and that prompted him to learn it.”
“Great theory”– Lee said. “It’s so good I’m almost going to change my guess to me! I’ve no idea why, but I thought that it might be Shannon.”
“Another split decision then”– Ryan said. “Who here has driven coast to coast then? I can see Rachel doing a wacky road trip with some girlie mates. It might just be wishful thinking on my behalf but I’m sticking to that answer.”
“That does sound like it would have been fun”– Rachel laughed. “Funnily enough I’ve got you down for this one”– she told Ryan. “I imagined you doing it after you finished that golf scholarship, giving yourself a break before you settled into the real world.”
“Good image”– Ryan said. “I should have done something like that at that time.”
“I think it might be just the sort of quirky thing you’d do”– Lee agreed with Rachel. “Probably just you cruising along on your own, breaking into song every now and again!”
“I really should have done that!”
“Maybe some day you will”– Lori said. “I agree with you. Although I think it’s Rachel. She seems like a free spirit to me.”
“I think this is Lee”– Shannon said. “I can see him doing something like this, maybe just before he decided to set up his own Karate school.”
“All right then last one”– Ryan said. “Who played tennis at college level? I think this is Shannon, I can imagine that steely glare coming back at me from the other side of the net.”
“I agree with you”– Lori said.
“I’m actually thinking this is an elaborate bluff on your part Ryan”– Shannon said. “I know you’ve told us that you went to college on a golf scholarship but you are obviously a sports freak and I can see you being one of these people that are annoyingly good at most sports. So I think although most of the time you were playing golf that maybe every now and again you played tennis for them as well.”
“I think it might be another bluff. I think Lori might be thinking that we won’t think an asthmatic could be that good at tennis. But in actually fact she is”– Lee said.
“Oh wow”– Ryan said. “We really are distrusting each other now!”
“I’m exactly the same as Lee. It could be way off but I think Lori my be the surprise call here”– Rachel said.
“Well then the results are in”– Ryan said. “All there is to do now is reveal which statement belongs to whom. So own up then: Who has run the New York Marathon?”
“That would be me”– Lori said.
“Inhaler in hand just in case!”
“Go me!” Shannon said excitedly.
“Well done Shannon that’s one for you”– Ryan said. “That’s awesome Lori! How many times have you run it?”
“Just the once, that’s enough for me for now.”
“What was your motivation?” Ryan asked.
“A little bit of what Shannon said about overcoming the asthma, also just to prove that I could do something like that asthma or not and I did raise some money for my Mum’s nursing home in the process.”
“Very impressive”– Rachel said.
“What time did you do it?” Lee asked.
“Nothing too quick, just under three and a half hours.”
“Hey that’s pretty good, that’s proper running all the way”– Ryan said.
“Well I do a lot of running anyway. And I did do quite a bit of training for that.”
“Definitely impressive”– Ryan said. “Next one is the piano player. Well, I fooled you all!”
“You?” Shannon said. “No way.”
“Yes”– Ryan beamed.
“For how long?” Lori asked.
“I sort of taught myself to play whilst I was at college. I had a lot of spare time in my room so thought I best make use of it. Musical instrument was something I also fancied learning. And the piano was my favorite.”
“We are going to have to hear you play now, we know that”– Rachel said.
“I’d love to show off my skills sometime. I’m no Chopin but I’m good enough to get a sing song going.”
“So that’s where the sing songs come from”– Lee laughed.
“Maybe!” Ryan said. “So who is the sign language expert?”
“That’s another one nobody got”– Rachel said.
“Really? Wow”– Shannon said. “What made you learn that?”
“Well Lori was sort of on the right lines when she was talking about knowing someone who is deaf and learning because of them. It wasn’t actually someone I knew though. All that happened was one day when I was working in a shoe shop. This lady came in to try out a few shoes. And she was deaf and dumb. It was me who went over to her. As soon as I got to her she mimed to me that she was deaf and dumb. And she asked me if I knew sign language. Of course at the time I didn’t. But we got through it all right. And we had a good laugh actually. She could just about read my lips if I talked slowly. But most of the times we just mimed things out. Despite getting through it, having fun and selling to her a couple of pairs of shoes that were perfect for her. I still felt so guilty for not knowing sign language. I promised myself to learn it and it was actually quite good fun to learn.”
“Cool story”– Ryan said. “So who’s had the big road trip? Lee or Shannon, got to be Lee.”
“It is indeed”– Lee said.
“Two for me!” Shannon said.
“Yes you definitely win the prediction game”– Ryan acknowledged.
“So was it a holiday or what?” Rachel asked Lee.
“It was just before I set up my own Karate school. I don’t know why but I’d always wanted to drive across the country. And New York to Los Angeles seemed to be as good a start and destination as any. I went on my own and traveled each day without pushing it too much. I actually drove there and back. It took just over two weeks on the way there. But I got back in nine days.”
“So it must be downhill from LA to New York”– Ryan said.
“Yeah that must have been it”– Lee replied. “Seriously it was just that on the way there. I was stopping off more and doing a few things. While on the way back I was just driving home. Awesome experience though, I loved the independence of the traveler.”
“Yeah I must admit I’ve always wanted to travel but never got round to it”– Shannon said.
“Not even when you were representing your College tennis team?” Lori said.
“Well that’s not the sort of traveling I meant”– Shannon said.
“Two of us got that one right”– Ryan said and high-fived Lori.
“Yeah I thought that one might be guessable”– Shannon admitted.
“I thought back at the mad house you said something about liking a game of tennis”– Lori said.
“Yeah and I think I’ve heard you mention it in passing another time as well”– Ryan said.
“Wow, so people do listen when I speak. They consider me surprised.”
“So did you ever have a go as a professional?” Ryan asked Shannon.
“No not really, I was never that good. I had to absolutely work my ass off just to get on the college team and compete, whereas most of them were just getting by on just talent and were waiting to put the work in when they turned professional and needed to improve.”
“When this thing is all over we’ll have to have a game”– Ryan said. “I don’t mind losing to a woman!”
“It’s a deal.”
“That was a great game Ryan”– Lori said.
“I know it’s really interesting. And you can play it with people you know really well or with people you’ve only just met. It is a really good ice breaker in certain situations”– Ryan said. “I tell you what as well as the obvious stuff I think we’ve all learned something else as well. The idea is we are all sensational liars and we are bluffing. I don’t know about anybody else but when we were doing the guessing I didn’t get a vibe off anybody to suggest that they were guessing somebody else for their own statement.”
“You’re right we were all very hard to read”– Lori said.
“Sounds like we could have on hell of a poker game”– Lee said.
“Maybe that will be tomorrow night’s entertainment”– Ryan said.
All night there were no phone calls made to or from Jensen’s house. And in particular he didn’t do a thing worth mentioning on any of the monitors.
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