Greek: Best Frenemies by Marsha Warner Page B

I thought I was hallucinating.”
    â€œWe have a talking-stick type-thing for meetings called Pussy Willow.”
    He raised his eyebrows. “That I didn’t know.”
    â€œI guess you don’t know everything there is to know about ZBZ after all. And I thought you were the scholar of ZBZ women.”
    â€œJust two, really. And at the moment, one.”
    Rebecca didn’t say “aw” or fawn over him in a romantic gush for the comment. She just silently appreciated it, something she would never admit to if her life depended on it, and that was good enough for Evan.
    â€œSo are you going to tell me about the baking-flour incident now?”
    â€œLet’s just say baking flour looks a lot like sugar, which looks like another substance that costs much more than both of them combined and is much harder to obtain, and no ZBZ should snort any of those substances.”
    â€œVery tantalizing. But not enough.”
    She smiled flirtatiously. “You haven’t earned it.”
    He returned the expression. “The night is young.”
    Â 
    It was late when Casey arrived at the KT house, but it was college so everyone was still awake. The first guys shesaw were hyperfocused on the television, and one nodded in the general direction of the backyard when she asked where Cappie was.
    Outside, she found Cappie, her brother and Dale working with some kind of wire frame that was bent and rusted and looked as if it had been salvaged from a different item entirely. It did come out haphazardly into a box shape. “You’re building a succah?”
    â€œHey, Case.” Cappie climbed over the rubble to kiss her. “No, it’s way too low. And you can’t build it until Yom Kippur anyway, and that’s like six months away.”
    â€œWhat is she talking about?” Dale asked. He had gloves and protective eyegear on over his glasses.
    â€œJewish ritual booth eaten in for a week during what Christians refer to as the Feast of Tabernacles but the Jews call Succot. It has to be constructed outdoors, and in the fall, after Yom Kippur,” Cappie said. “I used to be a Jewish studies major.”
    â€œI remember that semester. You were spending so much time at Hillel, thinking it would earn you extra credit,” Casey said. “So, what are you building?”
    â€œRock’em Sock’em Robots,” Rusty said. “You know, the ones where they punch each other and their heads pop up?”
    â€œYeah, you can buy those on eBay.”
    â€œLife-size. Hopefully.” Cappie put his arm around her. “It was Spitter’s idea. And Dale’s. We needed another Vesuvius. Without the eruptions.”
    Rusty proudly held up a long pipe with various attachments to make it look more like a stick-figure man. “Imagine this with a lot of plastic and paint. And a head. Imagine it like the box, but bigger.”
    â€œSo, not at all what I’m looking at.”
    â€œNot technically, but we’ll get there,” Cappie said. “You never had one of those sets?”
    â€œI did in kindergarten, but by the time I got there it was already broken and both guys were missing their heads. They just hadn’t cleared it out yet. Lazy preschool cleanup committee.”
    â€œThat’s it!” Dale said, standing back up from where he was kneeling. “That’s the quote I was thinking of!”
    â€œWhat quote? About kindergarten?”
    â€œNo, Aristotle. For Cappie’s essay,” Dale said. “He said if every tool could do its own work—like a hammer could hammer a nail in by itself—then workmen wouldn’t need servants. And slaves. He said slaves because it was ancient Greece. I can’t remember where it’s from.”
    Cappie nodded. “The internet can remedy that. Thanks, Dale. Now if you gentlemen would excuse me.” He took Casey’s hand and they ascended the stairs to Cappie’s room for