"Are ghosts supposed to look all handsome like you?"
Oh my God, what is it with this family?
I tried to avoid glancing at New next to me even just to share a laugh as he determinedly bit his mouth shut. The rest of his relatives, Pleum, Doe, his father Ray and Pleum's wife Fern all paused in their eating to scrutinise me carefully. Well, Pleum didn't really, he just strained his eyes at my seat, apparently trying to conjure up my spirit. I hadn't yet had a chance to consider the meaning behind both sons of the Techaapaikhun family being (initially, anyway) unable to see me, even after others had.
I laughed nervously as Fern's question continued to hang in the air, weirdly expecting an answer. "I m-mean, ghosts just look how they looked in life," I replied, swearing inwardly at every hot tickle of embarrassment traveling up the back of my neck. "I think. I consider myself pretty average-looking--"
"Now who told you that, boy?" Ray jumped in, bushy eyebrows pinched. "You're not telling me the gents in the city somehow have a different level of pedigree than the country? 'Cause out here you'd be chased down the streets soon as you stepped out the house--"
"Pa, what dramas have you been watching?" New scoffed into his spaghetti. He'd had a quick shower after the long drive and his hair was falling into his eyes, fluffy and shiny. "Nobody gets 'chased down the streets' for being good-looking."
"I bet he would."
"Goodness, Grandpa, you've been quite taken in!" Fern giggled. She tossed her hair over her shoulder -- the same hair that Doe had inherited -- and wiped sauce from her daughter's cheek. "Now I see I just needed to be prettier to get your approval earlier!"
"Fern, it wasn't your looks that got you that. Looks can never replace good, old-fashioned hard work. I've told my boys this since they were on the changing table--"
"Work hard and you'll never live hard," both New and Pleum chimed in. Pleum said it with an easy glitter to his eye, winking at his wife, but New said it frowning down at his food. I pushed the salad bowl until it clinked against his plate. He ignored it and filled his mouth with another huge helping of pasta.
"You're going to give yourself heartburn," I warned. He just shrugged.
"And look at you both now," Ray continued, a huge, rectangular smile pushing his cheeks aside. "They both graduated basically at the top of their class, you know, Tawan. New couldn't be beat in mathematics and the sciences, and languages too. Everyone thought he'd go into business but then he got himself accepted into one of them prestigious university journalism courses on a scholarship. I didn't fully understand it, but he was doing real well until all that baloney that happened overseas--"
"Pa--"
"And Pleum, he's got himself this beautiful family and is running my orchard better than I ever did. I wouldn't mind if New wanted to come back and do the accounting..."
"Pa, did you read that book that New edited?" Pleum patted his father on the shoulder. "The one I recommended, set on the Burma Railway?"
"I haven't got time to read. Gotta oversee the gentlemen's club in town. That Tip has been angling for my position as Manager recently. He is a snake, that one."
"Does he like mice, like Jake?" Doe perked up and waved her fork excitedly. Pasta was tossed through the air; a large chunk hit me in the face and slid an oily line towards my chin.
"Doe! I'm sorry, everyone -- Tay," Fern cried.
New glanced up from cleaning a piece off his hand and the tension in his jaw immediately broke. He let out a short, choked laugh and stood up to get some paper towel. I stealthily dipped my fingers in the remaining sauce in his bowl and, when he returned and held out the paper, I purposefully swiped them over the back of his hand. He let his eyelids droop in overstated unsurprise and went to snatch the towel back from me. I kept it out of reach until he caught my look and sat quietly in his chair. Satisfied, I tore the towel not quite in half and gave a bit to him. He sighed at the ratty piece and wiped it at the mess on his skin. I dabbed my face randomly whilst I happily watched him struggle, realising I had no idea now where the pasta had landed on me.
"There, he's staring again!" Doe shouted. Fern and Pleum groaned as more spaghetti was flung across the table they were wiping down. New brought the entire roll of paper towel over as Ray's eyes drew themselves back to me.
"Let me ask you, Tawan," he said, starting to swipe his empty plate with half of a dinner roll, "how hard did you work while you were alive?"
New's arm halted in it's circular sweeping of the table. "Pa," he muttered in a low voice.
Ray spun his roll in the air. "I don't mean nothing by it, New. Just curious what makes a ghost. Unfinished business, I always heard. And he's so handsome maybe he was just enjoying himself for a while--"
"Pa!" New turned away to throw the towel in the bin in the corner and when he turned back his posture was tall and firm, reminding me of that time in teamLab when I'd zapped in on his date with Mint. I got to my feet, meaning to wave a flag of peace between them, and noticed that he seemed a bit taller than me; also just like back in teamLab.
"How many times have I told you it's not your business to judge how hard a person works." New's voice was low and even. He sounded like the New from the work meetings we'd had together before I died. I'd forgotten how polished and commanding he could be.
Ray tore off the reddened tip of his roll and leaned on his elbows on the table. "I'm just asking a question, New. I'm not trying to make anything my 'business'."
"Hin, it's fine," I interjected with what I hoped was a light smile. "He's right, right? I mean, not about me being handsome, haha, but you've said yourself that I'm not serious enough about--"
"I can say that because I know it's not true." New rested his eyes on me and I saw a long weariness dragging on them. "He doesn't know anything about you."
"Ah, again with that," Ray said. "You always did have trouble trusting people. You used to put your own uncles through an inquisition before giving them a potato chip. I don't need that kinda time - I can clock a man in two minutes, you bet."
Ray clicked his fingers just like New did before the sound of thunder. New's own fingers twitched by his thigh. Pleum stood and cleared his throat loudly as Fern covered Doe in about fifteen sheets of paper towel.
"Alright, Techaapaikhuns, I think that's enough for one evening," he said with a bright clap of his hands. He placed them on his hips and shook his head, grinning in a way that simultaneously confused and comforted me. "Do you feel better? No? That's what you get for getting all crusty over a nice dinner." He pushed his lips out in a cartoonish pout. Ray chuckled and New rolled his eyes over his shoulder. "Pa, you're a retired apple farmer; don't blame the ghost for being younger, more handsome and having more fun than you. New, take your young and handsome ghost and go clean his face, would you? Then tell him some more about how much you understand him; he seems to have liked that."
Ghost-father, do you expect me to survive this family?
I think my soul tried to pull itself clear into the next life. I stood there vibrating with hollow, blind-sided disbelief, and completely failed to catch the important point of Pleum's words.
"Ah, he's finally appeared, hey." Of course New caught on just fine. Even knowing it now, I remained blinking up at him instead of bothering much with his brother. His family couldn't have tried any harder, torturing me all afternoon, and still he was brushing it off? Was I some kind of mosquito?
"Yeah, and it's a sight. I was expecting Casper the Friendly Ghost, but here's a tanned, Thai movie star with spaghetti sauce dripping off his chin...completely ignoring me... Hello, Tay? I can see you now."
"What are you glaring at, Te?" New raised his eyebrows. The weariness was gone.
I opened my mouth and Pleum popped in again. "Never mind that now. This dinner has been childish enough," he sighed. "Everyone go to your rooms -- yes, it's an order, Pa -- and we'll see you tomorrow hopefully all rested. Don't forget, there's Doe's big scavenger hunt. Save your energy for that. No more arguing in my house, please."
New collected the used paper towels near him and tossed them in the bin, then waited for me to finish passing plates over to Pleum in the kitchen. As we worked, Ray slowly finished his roll, chewing a little too long on each bite, his eyes fixed on no particular spot in front of him. When New and I went to leave the room, however, he knocked on the table.
"New," he said, a hint of dullness on his tongue, "you can trust me again. I want you to trust me again."
New pushed down the sleeves that had been bunched up at his elbows, covering his arms to his wrists and shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Don't--" He looked at me, then he ran a hand through his fringe, attempting to part the mass in his eyes. "I'll try."
New stalked off down the hallway and I quickly bowed to everyone as I followed, but not before seeing Ray's chest heave out and back in again with a huge, shuddering breath.
~~~~
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