Vero is lying on his back underneath the platform, while Brawley squats down and shines a flashlight underneath so Vero can see.
I’m sitting on the platform, my legs dangling off the side, watching them all with amusement. None of them can agree on what is wrong. Mostly since none of them know anything about machines, not that there is any way they would admit that.
Vero’s hand appears from under the platform. “Pass me the flashlight.”
“You don’t need it,” Brawley says. “You have been under there for ten minutes and haven’t touched a thing.”
“I’m assessing to see what is wrong, but I can’t see shit.”
“You are lying on your back, trying to look busy.”
“I have been finding a comfortable position, and I don’t see you on the ground. Flashlight please.”
Brawley sighs and passes it into the hand sticking out from beneath the carousel.
“Thank you . . . Oh, wow.”
“What?” Clay asks.
“Nothing,” Vero responds.
I laugh. “You just said, wow.”
“I can see now.”
Ares pinches the bridge of his nose. “What did you find?”
“I didn’t find anything—I can just see now and there are cobwebs.”
“So you’re scared of cobwebs now?” Brawley teases, rolling his eyes.
“I am not scared, but where there are webs there are spiders.”
“Get out from under there,” Brawley tells him, grabbing his leg.
Vero kicks him away. “I’m fine, I can make peace with spiders—I am bigger and scarier than them.”
I press my hand over my mouth to stop laughing.
“It has to be the belt,” Clay says again.
“It isn’t,” Ares doubles down.
“Then what is it, smartass?” Clay fires back.
“If you stop thinking about the belt, we can look at the motor housing.”
Brawley huffs. “Neither of you knows what you’re talking about.”
Both Clay and Ares look at him. “Do you know what it is then?” Clay asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
“No, but neither do either of you.”
Vero’s hand appears again from under the platform. “I would like to come out now.”
Brawley helps Vero out, and as he gets up, I spot cobwebs in his short hair, but I don’t plan to be the one to tell him.
“I think we need Cipher,” Vero concludes.