Chapter 11

“So what exactly is going on,” Dallas asked as Ara pulled into the visitor parking space at Andor’s apartment building. “I’ve sort of gathered that you think he’s not exactly hungover.”

“Andor has epilepsy,” Ara said, “He never tells anyone because he’s embarrassed by it, even though that is definitely the kind of thing you should at least tell people that you’re close to. He’s not supposed to drink a lot, but he was really drunk last night.”

Dallas followed Ara to the elevator.  “I’ll go in and check on him first,” Ara said as he pressed the button to the eleventh floor. “If he’s feeling ok, you can come in.”

“And if not, you’ll get the ID from him, and I’ll wait outside?” Dallas asked.

“I’ll see how he is first,” Ara said, "He'll probably be really confused, but the quicker we can get the ID from him, the better."

The elevator arrived at the floor. Ara took off at a brisk pace, and Dallas followed close behind him. The sound of their footsteps were muffled by the faded red carpet. Ara stopped at one of the doors. He knocked at the door, and when he received no evident response, he tried the doorknob, which turned out to be unlocked.

“Stupid idiot never locks his door,” Ara muttered as he walked in. Dallas leaned against the wall, waiting to hear from Ara. After what felt like a long time, he finally heard Ara call out to him.

“You can come now,” Ara said, “Close the door behind you though.”

Dallas entered the apartment, closing the door quietly behind him. The apartment was fairly messy. Coats and sweaters had been tossed carelessly onto the couches, dirty dishes were stacked high in the sink. There was a desk in one corner of the room that had so many papers on it that Dallas barely noticed the open laptop. He could see from where he was standing that it was some sort of drawing program was open on it. He was tempted to check it out, but Ara called him again.

“We’re in here, Dallas.” The sound of the voice came from the right side of the apartment from the bedroom. The room was not hard to find at all, given the size of the apartment.

Andor was lying on his stomach, sprawled out across his unmade bed with a vacant expression on his face. Ara sat next to him, watching him carefully.

"Dallas is here," Ara said to Andor.

Andor rolled over onto his back. He struggled to sit up, but Ara pushed him back down. "What is he doing here?" Andor asked.

"You told me to come over," Dallas said, "You asked Ara to pick me up."

"It'll come back to him," Ara said, "Don't worry."

"The fake ID," Dallas pressed further, "I was supposed to come get it from you."

"The fake ID," Andor repeated in tired voice, "The fake ID?"

"Any idea where it is?" Dallas asked.

"Oh," Andor said, "The fake ID. I can get it." He tried to sit up again, but Ara pushed him back down again.

"Just tell us where it is," Ara said, "Dallas can get it."

Andor outstretched a limp arm and pointed to his bedside table. "The drawer," he said, "it's there."

Dallas walked over to the small bedside table. He opened the door, and began rummaging through it. The drawer was filled with all different kinds of cards; bus passes, business cards, even some old student cards. He picked out a several cards, hoping that one of them might be the fake ID.

"Just find the one that doesn't have my name on it," Andor said.

Ara stood up and came over to help Dallas. He looked at the cards, and pulled one out a few seconds later. "It's this one, I think," he said. He handed it over to Dallas. "You probably should have mentioned that your fake ID was a Norwegian driver's license,” He said to Andor, “That would have been good information to know."

“I’m not even too sure what the name on here is,” Dallas said, as he looked at the ID, “How am I supposed to get into a casino with this?” He shook his head. “This was pointless. This whole thing.”

“We might be able to get around this,” Ara said, “I’ll try to come up with something, but we’ll need all hands on deck if we’re going to get all the money by next week.” He took the ID from Dallas. “I think the name is this first line here,” He pointed it out on the card.

“That would be really helpful if I even knew how to pronounce that,” Dallas said.

“We might need to talk about this later,” Ara said, “I need to get back to work soon, and you should probably be getting back to school.” He handed Dallas the ID. “Keep this somewhere safe. Don’t lose it. I can check in with Andor later.”

“You’re going to leave him like this?” Dallas nodded towards Andor, who was staring at the ceiling. The idle look on his face had barely changed since Dallas and Ara arrived at the apartment.

“I don’t want to,” Ara said, “But I really need to get back to work. If we leave now, I might be able to get back on time. Come on, let’s go.” They started walking out of Andor’s bedroom.

“Kjell Kristiansen,” Andor said as they left.

“What?” Ara said.

“The name on the ID,” Andor said, “That’s what it is. Were you actually discussing that, or was I just imagining it?”

“We were actually talking about that,” Ara said, “Are you feeling better?”

“A little,” Andor said, “I can try to come up with a way to work around all this later on.”

“Just don’t stress out about it,” Ara said, “And don’t feel obligated to come with us tonight if you’re not feeling good. We should probably get going now.”

“Ok,” Andor said, “I’ll see you two tonight, probably.”

Dallas looked at Andor over his shoulder. You have every intention of coming with us tonight, don’t you? He asked

Of course, Andor said, Don’t tell Ara though. I know he thinks it’ll be better if I stay.

I won’t, Dallas said, I’ll try to not even think about it.