by Aki_kaze
“It’s good you’ve got Diane,” the spirit said, “it’s good that you moved here.”
Keith discreetly glanced at the face of the other who was now taking an interest in the album. Those two blue eyes were alight with interest, keen to learn everything about the boy. His smile was bright. His voice and laughter stirred something inside him.
When Sam turned to him, their eyes met. Keith was debating with himself whether he should avert his eyes.
“Have you ever kissed someone?”
Keith was completely dumbfounded by the question.
“I see you haven’t.” A smile on the spirit’s face made his heart pound fast. Heat crept up his face. Keith didn’t know if that was from embarrassment or anger.
“Wha… what about you?!” Keith asked back.
“Me? I…”
A knock on the door made him wince. He uttered a response to that.
“Dinner is ready, dear. Come downstairs,” Diane spoke outside the bedroom.
“Okay. I’m coming.”
When he turned back, he didn’t expect to see Sam there. The other always disappeared after something like this happened. But, this time, he remained. Those two blue eyes stared at him in a way that made him forget how to breathe, in a way that made him forget even what he was asking.
“I’ll be back,” he said.
“I’ll be in the attic.”
Keith wanted to ask why but did not. He watched the other walking towards his secret base as he himself walked downstairs. The smells of cheese and tomato sauce wafted through the air. They came from the kitchen. He knew in that instant today was lasagna.
Alice was more than glad she could get to eat her mother’s cooking again. John and Hector though seemed quite okay having to eat pizza in the past meals.
“I know you want me to be out longer,” Diane turned to speak to her son.
“Keith, did you and Mom get to eat something delicious?” Alice inquired.
“We had Chinese,” he replied, scooping lasagna onto his plate, “it tasted better than that we ordered home.”
She made a doubtful expression.
John asked him whether Diane allowed him to eat something normally restricted. The boy denied. If John knew the truth that the restriction was lifted during the trip, he would definitely pester his mom about it to no end.
Diane turned to give him a knowing smile. He nodded back and started his meal. Today’s dinner was filled with merry laughter and endless conversation. The food tasted even better, and the mood was lively. It had been such a long time since Keith got to feel something like this. He hoped the moment would last for keep.
Chapter Twenty Three
The Tune and the Glimpse in Sam’s Eyes
After dinner, Keith helped Diane with the dish washing while John cleaned the table. It was a rare scene in the Underwoods household. So, Diane rewarded both of them.
Walking upstairs, Keith scooped up the ice cream into his mouth, sweet in flavor and rich in scent. John’s loud footsteps approached him from behind before the boy dashed past him, his hand holding a cup of ice cream of different flavor. Alice was watching the TV with Hector in the living room. Diane was baking. Keith could smell milk, cocoa, and flour. He wondered what was cooking in the oven.
He was about to go to his room when he realized Sam was waiting in the attic. Because the spirit couldn’t share the ice cream with him, he didn’t want the other to see him enjoy it. Especially not after he’d learnt how much the other loved sweets. It would have become quite a disturbing experience.
Suddenly that jelly eating moment in the kitchen rushed to his mind, following by that moment in the attic. He felt his face heat up.
“Have you ever kissed somebody?”
He rapidly shook his head, quickly scooping a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. Its coldness didn’t help.
“Why did you have to ask something like that?” He mumbled to himself, taking heavy steps towards the attic.
He stopped before the ladder, composing himself, then started climbing up.
“Keith!” Sam’s face suddenly appeared from above.
The boy screamed of shock, almost jumping out of his skin. One hand flew up to cover his mouth, the other grasping the ladder tight. He heard hurrying footsteps running up the stairs.
“Keith, what happened? Are you okay?” Diane was first to reach, voice alarmed, followed closely by Hector and Alice.
“N…Nothing. I just tripped over a step. Sorry.”
She stroked her chest for comfort, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Why are you going up there anyway?”
“Just getting something.” He gave them a sheepish grin. He watched as they left. Alice looked a bit concerned but then followed her parents downstairs. He took a deep sigh and turned to glare at the culprit who was feigning nonchalance.
“Why are you so easily frightened,” Sam said, showing no sign of concern.
Why, I wonder. Perhaps you should try taking my place.
Keith let out another sigh. He should get used to the other’s sudden apparition already.
“What are you doing here?”
The attic visit had been frequent enough it became like his second bedroom. There was still light from outside coming through the window, so no need for flashlight now.
“I come to look for my favorite things in my childhood, or something I used to be attached to. Some sort of that,” Sam said, meandering around. “Perhaps they weren’t here anymore.”
“What were you like when you were a child?” Keith asked while holding up a lamp before putting it down. He went through stuff on the shelf absentmindedly.
“When I was a child?” He rubbed his chin, his eyebrows furrowed into a knot.
“Can you still remember it?” Keith asked, “Can you still remember your childhood?”
Sam presented him a thin smile, understanding what the other wanted to ask.
“I really have forgotten many things. But something I’ll always remember. Becoming a spirit can’t take it away.”
Keith waited for further explanation, but there came nothing. He still didn’t dare to ask the spirit about his death. His hand put down a plastic toy soldier on the shelf.
“Oh! This is something. Come take a look.”
Keith went to the paper box in the room corner where Sam was standing. Inside was an old baseball, comic books, and many more he couldn’t quite make out.
“You see that blue thing? I think it’s my jacket.”
Keith’s eyes followed the spirit’s direction. He lay down the ice cream cup in his hand then pulled the blue thing out. It was a dust-laden blue sport jacket.
“I don’t know why it’s here. You can take it.”
“Why must I…?” He was cut in when he shook the shirt out, kicking up a cloud of dust. He quickly turned away. Even Sam did so.
“Be more careful.” Sam fanned his hand to repel the dust. Keith looked at him, his eyebrows raised in wonder.
“Why must I wear your clothes?” Keith mumbled but still put the jacket over himself to find out if it was his size, which it was.
“Nothing memorable with it,” the blonde said, “I just wore it a lot. Perhaps that’s why Mom left it here.”
From what he had seen, the stuff in the attic were mainly from Sam’s room. He wondered why Sam’s family didn’t take these things along. Did they leave them here on purpose?
“You liked comics?” Keith asked when he found stacks of comic series in the box.
“If I wasn’t outside taking a photo, I had a lot of time on my hands. Well, I wasn’t a bookworm like you.”
Keith frowned at him.
“Oh… you are not actually. You only read when the exam draws near. But your focus is admirable, I’ll rate it 10/10.” Sam pretended to adjust his non-existent glasses in a way a professor would do.
The boy rolled his eyes, paying no more attention to the other’s nonsense.
“You had no drawing?” he
asked, “when I went to Diane’s warehouse, I found mine. A lot of them.”
“I don’t think there is any here. But you’ll be in awe when you see it.”
“I bet you suck,” Keith presumed, seeing the other being too boastful. The spirit’s silence confirmed that he was correct. “Hmmm… so you are not Mr. Perfect after all.”
“You think I’m Mr. Perfect?”
Keith went haywire when Sam stared at him intently.
“What?! No!” He tried to deny. A faint smile appeared across the other’s face.
He discreetly looked at Sam after the spirit had turned his attention back to the paper box. It was hard to tell what the other was thinking. Sam’s past was all shrouded in mystery. Sometimes his face grew serious, as if he was trying to tell him something. But soon the smile would return to those lips which would continue to talk about something else unrelated.
“Did your old house change?”
Keith recalled the moment he stood in front of his old house. How surprising a ten years’ worth of memory of a certain place could be so fleeting. The place was his home no more. It was as if the memory of that place now belonged to other people instead.
“I could hardly recognize it,” he answered without further details.
Keith walked back to his room with the sport jacket in his hand. Come to think of it, Keith hadn’t got to know Sam better than before. That spirit remained a total mystery to him, a question he wanted to solve, yet did not want to know the answer. If it would create distance between him and the spirit, he would rather leave it unknown.
“You’re walking right into me,” Alice’s warning stopped him in his tracks.
He looked up to see the girl standing before him, her eyes wide and curious.
“You’re not watching where you go. Are you alright?”
“It’s… nothing,” Keith said. He saw Alice’s eyes shifting to the jacket in his hand, so he hid it behind his back. “I’ll go back to my room now.”
He scurried into the bedroom and turned the light on. He threw the jacket into the laundry basket then went into the bathroom to do away with the melted ice cream. He roughly washed the cup and placed it on the sink. He went to fetch his phone then climbed up the bed. As he was playing the songs he had downloaded, he suddenly realized he needed to ask Sam something.
“Sam.”
“What?”
Keith was surprised at the instant reply. He didn’t expect the other to respond to his call.
“How did you know I call you?”
The blond gave him a shrug and moved towards the bed, hovering over in a cross-legged position per usual. He swayed his head to the rhythm.
“You know this song?”
“Of course.”
Sam hummed into the tune. His voice was softer than the music from his phone, but Keith could hear it more clearly. It seemed like something enveloped Sam’s figure, making it bright and brilliant. His brain must have messed up so bad for him to see this kind of hallucination. But right now all he could see and hear was nothing but Sam.
“There’s a song I want to listen,” the spirit said before the song ended.
“Tell me,” Keith replied after he came to himself. He shook his head to clear up his mind.
He typed out the song title as told by the other. When it started to play, Sam nodded in approval. Keith paid full attention to the song as he never heard it before. He could tell just from the first line it was a love song.
“I’d follow you to the moon in the sky above,” Sam sung quietly.
Keith looked at the other’s face. What he saw made him feel inexplicably distressed. Sam’s eyes were on the phone, but Keith knew his mind was not. He wanted to stop the music; he knew he was trespassing into Sam’s misty past. It was obvious this song held meaning to him.
Keith’s chest ached without him knowing why. He turned his face away, trying to control his breathing. The song went on as Sam sang along.
The boy always saw the other with a smile, but the one he was wearing right now was different. He caught a glimpse of longing in Sam’s voice. Sam looked happy. But Keith, on the other hand, felt an acute pang in the chest, which he didn’t know for sure if it was his or Sam’s. He didn’t know anymore what he was looking at.
When the song came to an end, Sam gave him a thin smile.
“Thanks, Derringer. Goodnight.” His voice was soft and gentle.
“Sam…”
Keith called, but it was too late. He could only watch as the other left, walking through the door. He played that song again, noting every word it sang. Listening to the song, Keith thought of every moment he spent together with Sam. But, Keith wondered, when the spirit was listening to it, whom did he think of though?
So amazing and I've been waiting
For a love like you
It's so amazing to be loved
I'll follow you to the moon in the sky above
Chapter Twenty Four
The Gibs’ Tragedy
Keith never thought the day would come when he could wake up without having a nightmare and even felt so refreshed. He sat up, stretching himself. He looked out of the window. The sky was clear, the perfect weather for going out.
The morning peace was disrupted by a song played on his smartphone. He turned to the voice source near the nightstand and found Sam experimenting on the device. Who knew since when he’d been in the room.
“This touchscreen stuff is harder than expected,” Sam muttered his complaint. The screen light shone on the spirit’s face made it look even paler. Suddenly, Sam exclaimed, “found it!”
A new tune came up. Sam turned to Keith and gave him a thumb up. Keith tilted his head in question.
“Oh, come on, this is a dance song. Get to your feet already.”
“Do I look like someone who can dance?”
“You think I can? Come on! Quick!” the blonde urged, beckoning him over.
Keith didn’t comprehend why he complied. But there he was, on his feet, looking at Sam who was moving his body to the rhythm.
“Hold on… You sing with me.” Sam frowned. “Let’s do it again. Hold on.”
“…Hold on.” Keith was quite behind the song. He never heard the tune before.
Sam shook his head in disappointment but did not press further. His lip-sync was accurate and his steps fitted the rhythm perfectly.
When the chorus line came, Sam jumped up and threw his arms in the air. Keith only watched him.
“You can’t let me dance alone,” Sam chided.
But Keith truly preferred being the audience. It wasn’t an everyday sight to see Sam dance and sing like this. The other’s face still urged Keith to dance with him. The boy tried moving his feet to the music, following Sam’s lead. When it came to the lines where the two needs to alternate, he didn’t miss. This time he got the timing right.
