The Ordinary Haunting

30. The Lilac Party - Part 3

For a late June night, the air in the garden wasn't too cold. Certainly not for a ghost and a polar bear. I towed New off the brick paving and onto a gravel path lined by shoulder-height stone lanterns flickering softly with orange and yellow flames. The clean smell of the sea was low beneath our faces, the quiet meandering of the waves down the hill barely blanketing the edges of our little sound bubble there within the blackwood trees and coastal rosemary at our ankles. I glanced up and saw a purple and black sky glimmering with ropes of white, yellow and blue stars.

I'd had my time running about the dance floor. Now the romantic was ready for his chance.

I squeezed New's hand tighter and wound down the path until late-blooming Tardiva and Snowflake hydrangeas greeted us with their yellow and bronze foliage, and matured pink flowers. We entered the alcove I'd been worried no-one would find, framed by those unpruned hedges, and I could only chuckle at myself for turning out to be that person who had a 'need for it'. Overhead, branches from either side of the garden reached towards each other. There was about a metre of sky left between them. I wondered how many more years it would take for them to be able to touch.

"How are you doing this?"

New stepped up beside me and swung our joined hands. I took a second to really feel the smooth plumpness of his palm against mine, and his fingers patiently allowing themselves to be enfolded. His curious brown eyes were lit up warmly by a nearby lantern as he observed the...situation? Miracle? Direct consequence of my strongly asserted will? I didn't know what to call it. I just knew I wasn't interested in letting it end this time--

New wriggled the strap of a tan-coloured guitar higher onto his shoulder. I dropped his hand and pointed in surprise. "Why do you have that?"

New lowered his eyelids wryly. "Earth was asking me to take it to the waiting room for him when you yanked me away," he explained. "He'd brought his acoustic guitar on stage for the warm-up, but decided to just go straight in with his electric." He walked over to a pair of stone benches set into the edge of the garden and laid the instrument down gently.

"Nothing else?" I asked, watching him pull off his jacket and give it a shake.

"God I'm sweaty," he mumbled. "Anything else? From Earth? N-- Wait, he was talking about something he'd put backstage for me, I don't know."

I took off my jacket too, feeling stuffy even out in the open night air. It was a chore to extricate it from the bunched sleeves, which only added to the cloistered feeling.

"What do you think it was?"

"Hm? Oh, knowing him, maybe a recording of a track he's been working on. He asked me to listen to it the other day."

I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried not to laugh, in a defeated sort of way. "Why don't you see them, New?" I giggled.

"See who?"

"The people who love you. Sometimes I think they're more invisible to you than ghosts are."

"'Love is only worth as much as the hard work you put into it.' Guess who taught me that." New planted his hands on his waist and scrutinised the alcove. I noticed his eyes moved a fraction of a second behind his turning head. "I haven't done a thing to earn love from anybody. Anyway, so what did you need my help with?"

I chewed at the inside of my cheek to give the urge to cry somewhere else to go. His father had been too fucking unfair to him. "H-how much did you have to drink, Hin?"

He pouted as he thought. "A couple of beers. Not that many."

"Besides the onigiri for lunch and the doughnut at the station, have you eaten anything today?"