The Despairing Tribulations of a Doomed Boy

Chapter 7

"What's going to happen to my parents?" Otto asked Detective Koi in the van. They had been driving for quite a while in silence. Otto didn't know where they were going. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about anything, really. He had ruined everything in one day. And over what? A sneeze and a loud noise in the bathroom. He still wasn't clear on what had happened in the bathroom.

"They will be where we're going. I understand your father is a rogue anomaly as well." Detective Koi didn't sound mad or patronizing. She spoke as if she was trying to comfort Otto.

"What about my mom?"

"She's a frivolous. Did you know about your father, Otto?"

"Yes." Otto wasn't sure if he should have lied about that or not, but something told him he wouldn't have gotten away with a lie.

The van pulled up to a building and stopped. Escher opened the back door, jumped out, and moved to the side for Rembrandt and Otto to follow after. There were two law-enforcement officers waiting to help escort Otto into the building. Each took hold of one of his arms.

Otto was brought into a windowless room. There was a camera on the wall and a voice recorder on the table. Detective Koi and her partner came in behind him. "I'm going to warn you now that if you touch your nose casing, it will end very badly for you. So keep your hands away from your face." Then she walked behind Otto, undid the straps of his straightjacket and gently pulled the jacket off him before telling him to take a seat. "I need you to push Rembrandt's nose-button. Then I can get started with my questions."

Otto hesitated. "What will it do to me?"

"It ensures that you tell the truth."

"Okay..." Otto reached across the table and pushed Rembrandt's button. He didn't feel any different.

Detective Koi pressed the record button on the voice recorder."Otto, what does your nose-button do?" She had a form on the table and a pen in her hand, poised to write down whatever he said.

Otto glanced from the camera on the wall to the voice recorder and then to Detective Koi. He had never told anyone what his nose-button did. He'd never even said the words to his mirror. His parents had told him what it did when he was in kindergarten. From the age of five, it had been his secret to keep. And for twelve years, he had kept it well. Never giving himself away. Now he had no choice but to tell the Chief Detective of law-enforcement. And apparently, he was incapable of lying.

Otto swallowed hard. He looked down at the table and started rubbing the lines in the surface with his thumb. Then he looked up at Detective Koi and over at Rembrandt. They were waiting patiently. They were a lot nicer than Otto imagined. He always thought that this situation would involve a lot of physical abuse and torment. He didn't even see a gun on Detective Koi. That seemed odd. She must have a nose-button that acted as her weapon. That's why they called them weaponized buttons, anyway.

"What does your nose-button do?" He asked, trying to kill time before having to give himself up completely.

Detective Koi smiled slyly. "Tell you what," she said, "I'll tell you what mine does after you tell me what yours does."

That answer didn't satisfy Otto. He frowned.

"Otto, killing my time isn't going to help you any. You're going to have to answer the question eventually. You might as well get it over with now."

"How long does this truth button last?"

"About twenty minutes each time." Detective Koi looked at her watch, "You've got seventeen more to go. Then we have you push it again."