"Wow!" Nikki screamed. She ran out of the room and down a flight of stairs.
On the bookshelf, a CD sat propped open. It was Tori's first record.
"That's you," Felix said, smiling to Tori.
"Yeah," Tori said shyly. She looked at the track listing on the back of the cover. Strangely, she didn't recognize any of the songs, but she remembered taking the album cover in sixth grade.
"Do you want to hear it?" Felix asked.
"Maybe later," Tori said, setting the case down.
"Look. At. That. Lawn!" Steven shouted, looking out the window. Excited, he grabbed the golf club bag and walked outside.
"So, the Marines, huh?" Tori said.
"Yup. I had lots of fun, but this seems better than retirement," he said. "You do think they'd be proud of me, like the warden said, right?"
"You saved all those people! Of course!" Tori said. "I don't even remember my piano teacher's name!"
"You play the piano?" Felix asked, gesturing to the concert grand in the corner of the room.
"Yeah," Tori said. She walked up to the beautiful instrument and sat down. The keys met her fingers perfectly and then stopped.
"Go ahead," Felix said, smiling.
An A flat major scale flowed from Tori's fingers, and then the tonic minor. It was fast, extremely smooth, and completely natural. Like riding a bike, right? Tori remembered someone saying. She stared at the back of her CD. Tori racked her brain, but she couldn't remember how to play any of those songs. She couldn’t remember how to play any songs.
"I don't remember," Tori realized. "I just don’t remember."
"Are you okay?" Felix asked.
"Of course not! I'm dead!" Tori shouted. "I don’t remember my best friend's face, my favorite song, or how I died. What's wrong with me?"
"Maybe however you died gave you amnesia," Felix suggested. "It's okay. The warden said it would pass." He pointed at the piano. "May I? I used to play jazz before I went into the military."
Tori took a deep breath and got up. Felix sat done and played a slow ballroom piece that Tori recognized. She started humming, but she couldn't remember the words. Felix stopped mid-bar.
"You know this song?" he asked.
"Um…? I did, I think, before."
"It's S'Wonderful. Here, the words," Felix said, handing Tori a tablet. Felix began playing again, and the lyrics felt familiar as Tori started singing along. It was fun to be part of something musical. When the song finished, it felt too soon.
"You sound amazing," Felix said.
"Thanks."
"I mean, really. You're famous or something, right?" Felix asked. "That lady said you were the next Adele."
"Well, not really? So, I played Cosette in Les Mis in San Francisco when I was little, but it's been an uphill battle since then," Tori said. "People only see the little blonde girl singing of paradise. They don’t see the brunette singing… whatever stuff I sang." Tori frowned.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Felix said. "Let's see what else there is to do here. It is the afterlife, after all."
The house seemed to embody the tastes of its occupants. They found Nikki working out in the basement gym. The garage held a high-tech shooting range complete with an extensive gun rack and four sets of earmuffs. The backyard was a massive golf course with a large pool house next to the golf equipment room.
Upstairs, there were four large bedrooms. Felix said his room looked just like his childhood bedroom, except four times bigger. Tori's bedroom looked like a large hotel room, except for there was a picture of Tori with a bunch of people she didn't know hanging above the bed.
"Are these your friends?" Felix asked.
"Maybe," Tori replied. "You think there's a night and a day here?"
"Don't know. But it'd be kind of strange to have a bed if we can't sleep."
"But we're dead," Tori said.
"If I'm being honest, being dead feels pretty much the same as being alive," Felix said. "At least, so far."
Tori just shrugged.
Back downstairs, they found the kitchen. It was large, full of appliances neither of them knew how to use.
"Maybe Stevens likes to cook or something," Tori suggested. Felix shrugged.
They also found a theater room like the one at the "newly deceased" center. When they walked in, the screen started playing a scene of a little, redheaded boy blowing out seven candles on a cake.
"Aw, I remember that," Felix said.
"I think that's how the room works," Tori snorted. "That means I can't show anything."
"Who was that blondie at the bar, again?" Felix asked. "The one with the red dress."
"I don't know. Just a fan, I guess." Tori thought about the scene, playing at the bar, talking to blondie. What happened next? Was it the drink? The police? That sketchy-looking guy two tables away? Tori couldn’t remember much, but the room started playing the memory again, starting earlier than before.
Tori was playing an original song that she wrote, a breakup song. She couldn’t remember whom it was for, but it was a beautiful, moving song. The heart-wrenching lyrics rose up to a resounding climax and ended on a major chord and better place. The bar's patrons clapped and Tori walked over to the bar. She turned to her right and there she was, blondie with her burgundy lipstick shining in the dim light of the bar. Tori re-watched the entire bar scene, but this time, she focused on the bartender, the other people, and anything she might have missed the first time. When the scene ended, no further than last time, Tori still couldn’t figure out anything new.
"Looking for something?" Felix asked finally.
"Yeah, but I didn't find anything," Tori sighed.
"It's probably too soon. But I loved the song," he said.
"Thanks," Tori replied absently. The song. It wasn't a love song. It was about something else. What that something else was still eluded her.
"Is it just me or can ghosts be hungry?" Felix interrupted Tori's thoughts.
"Maybe that's what the kitchen's for," Tori smiled. "What's that smell? Is that lasagna?"
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