Ryan sat at his desk in his room and turned his tablet on. He typed "Adam Dar Tenian" in the search engine and a list of articles appeared.
He scrolled through them and found "Adam Dar Tenian's Early Years". He read:
Adam David Phillips was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to farm owners David and Julie Phillips. His younger brother and only other sibling, Alex Peter Phillips sang with him in the church choir when Adam was ten and Alex was eight.
They studied piano at Finley Middle School in Tulsa and worked at Sippers to afford voice lessons at Winde Music Institute in Oklahoma City.
Adam and Alex taught themselves to play electric guitar and began writing songs. They performed at local bars and clubs as "The Roaders" and later moved to Chicago, Illnois.
They met bass guitar, player, Billy Stewart at Club Xsight in Chicago and auditioned drummer, Roger Vines there.
They formed a band called "Ravengame" after inviting high-school friend and electric guitar, player, Steve Fields. Adam sang lead and Alex played lead guitar.
Ravengame played at Fhur Room in Galapos Casino at Menagerie Hotel in Chicago and met lead guitar, player, Neil Stone there.
After failing to get a record deal with Rimmer Records in Chicago, Alex quit the band and moved back home, using his gig money to open a small, coffee shop in Aurora, Illinois.
Adam invited Neil to replace Alex and named the five-man band, Dar Tenian. Due to aesthetic reasons, he changed his last name.
Adam and Neil wrote songs together and "Sexy Girl" attracted a legion of female fans. Soon, Dar Tenian signed with Weiss Records in Los Angeles.
Ryan stopped reading.
He typed in "Alex Peter Phillips" and "Ravengame" in the search engine. He scrolled through all the articles and found pictures of the band. One picture of Adam and Alex leaning against a bar caught his eye. Alex resembled the man who bought the book. He looked like the man at the driver's wheel in his vision and stood a little shorter than Adam.
He typed "Alex Peter Phillips", "cafe" and "Aurora" in the search engine and scrolled through all the articles, but none named the cafe he owned.
Miss Aldridge washed dishes at the sink in the kitchen and Grace talked quietly on the phone in her room.
Mr. Ross napped in a soft recliner in the living room with a paper plate in his lap covered with chocolate cake, crumbs.
Ryan leaned over him and pulled the smartphone out of his shirt pocket, turning it on. A password request popped up and Ryan sighed, slipping the phone back in his pocket.
---
In Homeroom, Ryan slipped Shantel a note. She read it:
Thank you for Thanksgiving.
I need to come over today.
Will you be there?
Ryan
"I'll be home," she said.
---
Ryan sat on Shantel's bed and told her everything. She listened at her desk carefully. He noticed a bar of soap wrapped in pink paper on her bedside table. She admired the Thanksgiving card Ryan gave her and slipped it under her tablet.
"Is the soap for the hemjow?" he asked.
"Yes, I made an appointment for it."
"Good."
"What will happen if you tell your mom you snooped in her file cabinet?" asked Shantel.
"I don't know. If she doesn't want me to know who my father is, I don't want to ask her."
YOU ARE READING
Sing Today Die Tomorrow
Mysterium / ThrillerSomething wants him to die. Something else wants him to misbehave and another something wants him to hear lies. And he just turned thirteen. Ryan Ross doesn't understand what on earth is haunting him until a mysterious stranger leads him to a secret...
