Out of breath, 5 whispered, “Just now I accidentally walked in on 3 when she getting ready to take a shower. She hadn’t turned the hose on yet, so I didn’t hear her in there. I don’t think she saw me in the doorway — I was only there for a second.”
“And?” 6 asked.
“Anyway, she was naked, and I couldn’t believe it but… she has a penis. 3 is really a guy!”
2 hissed, “What?”
“I think she hid it from Dr. Onsay. Don’t you see how this might throw the test off? There’s supposed to be two guys and two girls, right? I’m sure that arrangement was intentional. But now it’s really three guys and just one girl — me!”
6 said, “She’s not a guy. Impossible.”
“I know what I saw!” 5 insisted.
“You said you only saw her a second.”
“Look, I’m telling you she has a cock — I saw it plain as day!”
“And I’m telling you she doesn’t have a cock,” 6 retorted.
“How would you know?”
“Because I’ve seen her plain as day, too.”
2 turned toward 6. “What do you mean, you’ve seen her plain as day? When did this happen?”
6 looked sorry at what he had blurted. “Yeah, I know… you’ve seen her, too, haven’t you?”
“I asked you when and how did you see her?” 2 growled through gritted teeth.
“Look, before you get all violent, here, it’s her you should be taking this up with if it bothers you, not me.”
“But who knows,” 5 said as if weighing the matter alone, oblivious to the tension between the two men, “maybe Dr. Onsay is aware of it — maybe 3’s discussed it in confession — and it doesn’t matter if I’m the only woman, after all.”
“Fuck this,” 2 snarled. “I’m going to go talk to her right now.”
“You’re going to walk in the shower and ask her to show you her cock?” 5 said, snapping out of her pensive state.
“She does not have a fucking cock!” 2 shouted. “But apparently she’s had this motherfucker’s cock.”
“Fuck you, man,” 6 snapped. “What are you, her husband or something?”
2 began stomping across the room. “Suck my dick,” he called back over his shoulder.
“Ah, go suck her dick!” 6 returned.
5 faced 6 with a furrowed brow and said, “I thought you said she didn’t have a dick.”
Exasperated, 6 told her, “I’m just giving the guy shit, now!”
When 2 stepped into the women’s shower room, its new mural of graffiti shiny with sprayed water as if its paint was not yet dry, 3 looked up at him with a gasp, pressing a hand flat between her adolescent breasts with their pronounced dark brown nipples. Her hair was plastered to her neck, water beaded on her tiny body with its barely defined hips. Nestled under a wiry black thatch of hair, her penis was shaded a darker brown than the rest of her skin, small and uncircumcised.
“Oh thank God,” 3 said, “it’s only you.”
2 stared at her in horrified awe, wagging his head. “I can’t believe this… I can’t believe it. It’s true!”
“What’s true, honey?”
He coughed up a laugh. “Oh, so now I’m honey, huh?” He pointed. “You have a cock… you actually do have a cock! You’re a guy!”
3’s brows lowered, her expression darkening. “What are you saying? You act like you didn’t know. You didn’t kind of notice this before, when we made love up in that storeroom?”
“But… but I fucked you…”
“Ah, yes. In the ass. Are you saying you don’t know the difference? Come on now, are you going crazy or are you just sorry about it now? At the time you didn’t seem to mind. Are the drugs getting to you that much that you really forgot?”
Pressing his palms to his temples, 2 stammered, “I… I’m sorry…”
“Sorry what? Sorry you and me made love?”
“I’m sorry I forgot about… this.”
“How could you forget?”
“I don’t know. But yeah, I guess now it’s coming back to me. I’m sorry — I’m so sorry. It must be the drugs, like you say.”
3 wrapped a white terrycloth towel around her glistening body, hiding her manhood from him, still looking doubtful. “So what are you thinking now, about me?”
“Well, I’m just thinking… didn’t you say you have one child? A daughter?”
“Not a daughter; a son,” 3 replied. “I mean, a stepson. I called him my ‘sun.’ He’s four years old. But he doesn’t live with me anymore. He lives in California.”
“Oh… yeah… right. I think I remember that now. Your ex’s son, huh?” Then 2’s befuddlement turned to a flushed red anger. “6 told me he’s seen you with no clothes, too. So you fucked him, didn’t you? Or should I say he fucked you? Or for all I know you fucked each other!”
“Don’t talk to me like that,” she said sharply. But then, modifying her tone, she said, “Honey, look, I’m sorry… okay, I had sex with him one time. It was before you and I made love. After that I’ve barely talked to him again. You told me after this was all over you wanted to be with me. Maybe I didn’t give you a straight answer before… maybe I had some doubts, if you really could love me or if I’m only a novelty and you’ll get tired of that. But if you’re really serious about me, then I want to be with you, too. So you have to forgive me about 6, okay? I didn’t… I wasn’t sure… maybe I was being greedy. Just try to forgive me and get past it, all right? Please?”
2 moved toward her, and 3 opened her arms to accept his embrace. He crushed her against his much larger body, and nuzzled his nose in her wet scalp. “Forgive me,” he said softly, “and I’ll forgive you, too. But you’re mine now; don’t forget.”
“I won’t,” she said huskily, her face against his chest. And below, her penis was becoming erect as it pressed against his body, as well.
Had to be the pills, 2 thought. He was so glad he hadn’t taken them this morning. He swore to himself that for however much longer this test endured, he would not take a single one of them again.
9
Exasperated, 5 had to wait for 2 and 3 to vacate the women’s shower room before she could finally take her own shower. She didn’t want to speculate on the reason for their long delay in emerging. When they did, they both apologized sheepishly as they slipped past her. She wanted to ask 3 if she — he? — intended to continue using this shower instead of the one reserved for the men, but didn’t. She supposed it didn’t really matter. But again, she fretted that 3’s condition might contaminate the research project’s aims, if her ambiguous state were not already known. If it did invalidate the test, she damned well better still receive the money that had been promised her.
She stripped, wetted her hair and body with the hand shower, then shut it off to lather herself with soap. Having done that, she activated the spray again and ran it over her head and body to rinse the soap away.
As she was spraying her hair, head tilted forward a bit and the water streaming past her eyes, a presence attracted her attention and she shifted her gaze to the new wall of graffiti. A person appeared to be standing in front of the wall with their arms hanging at their sides, watching as she showered, and yet the figure was unnaturally dark as if silhouetted. Startled, 5 raised her head and soapy water promptly ran into her eyes. She sputtered, stumbled back, rubbed her free hand over her face. Finally her burning eyes cleared, but when they did she saw no shape standing in front of the mural. Whipping around, she saw no one anywhere within the small room with her. Had there been, but they’d fled? Or had it only been a trick of the blurring, rippling water across her vision?
A wave of tingling radiated across her neck and back, and gooseflesh swept down her arms. She quickly rinsed off the rest of her body — but didn’t spray her head any further, lest she again compromise her vision and make herself vulnerable to another person… or to her own imagination.