The Ordinary Haunting

9. The Hasty Retreat - Part 1

"Don't you have any hobbies?"

New pressed a button on his steering wheel to change the song.

"Looking after a cat and some plants doesn't count. Neither does falling asleep in front of the TV."

I stretched my legs out until my big toe pressed into the warm glass of the windscreen.

"Going to the gym, maybe. But no-one's really going to like you for that."

The soundtrack for the day seemed to be some kind of reduced, easy listening hip hop. The acoustic ballad guy that I was, I hadn't paid much attention to this branch of music. As a slow drum beat vibrated the speakers under my feet and a trailing piano tapped on the inside of my ears, I felt stupid for literally dying first before hearing it. The imperfect crackling of the track in the background, in particular, played with the tiredness inside me and mellowed its edges.

"I can't believe we're working the whole weekend."

My irritation on this point was still a little too strong even for the good vibes, I guess.

New turned his head towards me to check the lane beside us. He squinted into the sunlight, his lashes all but closing completely. I raised my hands from my slumped position and held them out wide in front of his eyes. The light continued to blaze across his face, completely unimpeded.

I dropped my arms and gave a kick to the dash that was mostly covered by a jilting saxophone.

New faced the road ahead again, rolling his shoulders. I didn't bother glaring once more at his business suit. It seemed I couldn't rely much on his clothing choices to bestow any useful information upon my answer-starved soul.

"Arm better be right about this. Well, he doesn't know what he's doing, either. Much as he plays it all confident, I've known him for fifteen years and I can tell when he's merely going along with whatever falls into his lap. She was just supposed to give us an excuse to work together and actually talk, somehow. Best case scenario, maybe she could have gotten a bit nosy and asked you some personal questions -- if you've got an angry ex-girlfriend, or if you ever bullied someone in school or something... She wasn't supposed to send us up into the mountains for ghost counselling."

I had got into a habit of continuously muttering out loud when I was alone with New. It was kind of liberating to be able to say whatever I wanted, without worrying about always trying to be positive or helpful, or even friendly. I spotted a sign for Yurei and felt weariness return.

Suddenly, the volume of the music dimmed and was replaced by the sound of ringing. I looked over at the car's display and saw the words "Incoming call -- Pleum". New's thumb hovered over the answer button for a second before he pressed it.

"Hello."

"Hey, New. How's it going?"

"Fine, yourself?"

"I'm good! Fern says hi."

"Okay."

"Yeah." The road rumbled beneath us in the silence. New started to frown.

"Wh--"

"So I w-- Oh, what were you going to say?"

"No, just, what is it?"

"Oh, right, well, I wanted to check if you're coming next weekend?"

New's knuckles grew sharper on his clenched hands. "I'm not."

"Are you sure?" A baby started to cry in the background of the call.

"Yes, I'm sure, Pleum."

"Again?"

"And again, and again. He doesn't want me there."

"You don't kn--" The baby's cries drowned out the end of his sentence. New dug his fingernails into the steering wheel.

"Go see to Doe, Pleum. Bye."

"New, br--"

The music faded back in and filled the car. It was as rich with ambience as ever, and yet it wasn't near enough. The air felt too thin. I sat upright in my seat and leaned forward to see into New's face. His mouth was pinched shut, and his brows were crumpled inwards. I wanted to run my thumb between them and iron the creases flat once more. Just as I was reaching for him, sneezing be damned -- I was thinking it might even be a nice shot of electricity anyway -- his face slackened on its own. A disturbing blankness came into his eyes. A blankness I'd seen before. I pulled back and stared guiltily out at the scenery passing by, and the encroaching mountains before us.

The robot intern turned up the music and tapped along, utterly off beat.

~~~~

Header: https://images.app.goo.gl/PekuAqwABZn6p2F66