Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

HIRO

“When you’re in Tokyo, can you get something from this store?” Yumi asks. “I’ll send you the info, but only if you already planned to go in there.”

“Of course,” I say. After the hospital visit yesterday, we went out to eat, and then today we visited a beautiful temple and walked around Gion before returning back to Rina’s for the night. Even Grandma came to eat dinner with us since tomorrow we’ll be heading to Tokyo and won’t return until the day before our flight.

“Yumi,” Rina warns. “They have plenty of things they already need to do.”

“It’s okay, we really don’t mind,” I assure her. “You three have been wonderful hosts. If there’s absolutely anything I can do in exchange, I would love to do it.”

It’s great to have my grandma here if only I could ignore the fact that anytime I look up, she seems to be staring at me. I can’t quite tell why, but somehow, I’ve become the most interesting person in the room. I want to assure her that I’m definitely not that interesting, but I have a feeling it doesn’t quite matter.

“I really do apologize that your trip has been a bit… rocky,” Rina says.

“You don’t have to apologize at all. That’s uhh… kind of our luck,” Maddox responds.

“Very much,” I agree. “We’re used to it at this point.”

“Sounds worrisome,” Yumi says, which makes the two of us laugh. She looks amused. “It wasn’t supposed to be a joke.”

“It was funny, though,” I assure her.

After the table is cleared off, Rina brings out a game that she teaches us how to play. Reggie leads me to believe he’s helping me, but it quickly becomes clear that he has no idea what he’s doing. And Natalie just decides that “the power of her brain” is better used elsewhere.

I had asked them to follow Charlotte, but neither seemed to be able to track her down once she’d disappeared back into the hospital. I’m unsure whether that means Charlotte and her husband had left the hospital before they could find her or what. But Keaton is still dutifully following Nakamura.

After we finish up, we head upstairs for bed, since we’ll be getting an early start in the morning. I see that I have a text from Nicolás—who took Bandit and Stella to his place while we’re gone—in the form of our daily “proof of life” photo, as Maddox likes to call it. In the picture, Stella is sunbathing and Bandit is chewing on a toy.

Nicolás: Run into any serial killers yet? Haha.

Me: Bandit and Stella look like they’re having fun.

Nicolás: Why the fuck did you just ignore that question?

Me: Which question? The question of whether or not I got you anything? Depends on whether you admit that you used to whisper stuff in Spanish about me and then pretend you didn’t.

Nicolás: One time.

Me: Like once a day! You were totally calling me bad names.

Nicolás: LOL I forgot all about this. And I wasn’t calling you bad names. I was just saying random stuff, but you were convinced it was something evil. Then you were trying to learn Japanese just to say shit about me.

Me: I did, didn’t I? That makes me laugh. You’d just be like creeping in the corner saying shit about me.

Nicolás: I really wasn’t, and I think that’s what made it funnier. At one point I was just reciting the Pokémon theme song in Spanish. But more like… chanting it. Sean and I cooked it up beforehand, and we thought it was hilarious how you just gaped at me, trying to figure out what I was saying.

Me: We were clearly the best of brothers.

Nicolás: Sure were. Definitely doesn’t make me forget the fact that you’re pretending to ignore my serial killer joke. It was supposed to be a joke.

Me: It was! It was a hilarious joke! Funniest joke I’ve ever heard. I’m honestly still laughing about it.

Nicolás: I will get on the next plane to Japan and kick your ass.

Me: Why did you turn violent against me?

Nicolás: Why can’t you answer the damn question? Please do not tell me that you’ve already run into a serial killer?!

Me: Definitely not a serial killer. The dictionary definition of a serial killer is someone who has killed at least three people over a span of time. This guy has killed no one.

Nicolás: Come home.

Me: It’s okay. He wasn’t a serial killer. He was a stalker who’d been stalking my cousin’s boyfriend. We did a good thing. Maddox and I weren’t hurt. We saved the guy’s life. The bad guy was caught.

Silence.

“What’s wrong?” Maddox asks.

“Uhhh… either Nicolás has snapped his phone in half in pure unnecessary anger or he is coming to Japan to yell at me for getting caught up in trouble again.”

“Well, if he’s coming here, at least you have a good thirteen hours to run,” he says.

“Damn, you’re right.”

My phone beeps and Maddox looks over at it with interest. “Maybe he’s already forgiven you.”

Nicolás: I have found a new brother to replace you.

Me: What the hell? I thought you were mad or taking time to book a plane ticket to threaten me, and instead you just went and found a new brother? How’d you find one so fast? I bet he sucks compared to me.

Nicolás: He has agreed to never run into danger and will never get involved in shit and will be good.

Me: He sounds horrible.

Nicolás: Should I tell Patricia?

Me: That you have a new brother? I mean… I guess so she knows who the random man you’re bringing to Thanksgiving is. She might be confused and think it’s your boyfriend or something.

Nicolás: Should I tell her you’re already running off with serial killers?

Me: NO! Nicolás, she’ll be so mad.

Nicolás: Dear Patricia, I would like to inform you that your less superior son has thrown his life into danger again. Because of this, I petition that we replace him with a dog.

Me: Why a dog?

Nicolás: They are significantly cuter and nicer and less drawn to trouble.

Me: Nicolás, no! I promise I’m being good(ish).

Nicolás: Just be careful. Please?

Me: Super careful.

Nicolás: If you’re not, I’m going to start talking to you in Spanish again.

Me: No! Not the Pokémon theme song!

Nicolás: You’ve been warned.

“Well, he’s decided to replace me with a dog and chant the Pokémon theme song at me. But I’m prepared to show him that I’m better than a dog.”

“I feel like at least one part of that was confusing,” Maddox says.

“Right? Like who the hell replaces perfect me with a dog?”

“It weirdly wasn’t that part.”

A ghost steps into the room, and I realize that it’s the grumpy man who loves to push my suitcase down. Seeing one of our suitcases ready by the doorway, he pushes it over with clear glee, then walks over to the closet and points. I take that to mean he wants something in there and head over.

I open the closet door and he points to a chess set. “You want me to set it out?”

He waves toward the table, so I set it up and he sits down before gesturing at me to sit down across from him.

“Oh… I don’t know how to play chess.”

He stares at me with such a disappointed look on his face then grumbles something in Japanese.

“He definitely said something like ‘I am hottest when I glower,’” Natalie says.

I give her a look. “I’m pretty sure he didn’t. Ooh, we could play checkers with the chess pieces? I think? I really don’t know. You could like point at what you want to move and I could move it.”

“Are you playing with yourself?” Maddox asks.

“Not in the fun way,” Reggie mutters.

“I’m playing checkers with suitcase shover.” I wave toward the pieces, hoping the ghost understands, before typing it into the translator on my phone and sliding it in front of him. He looks down at it then scrunches up his eyebrows. I can’t quite tell whether he understands English or not. He seems to understand it, at least, but maybe he isn’t confident enough to speak it?

“I’m playing with this ghost.”

Maddox scrutinizes the table. “I see. I’ll pack everything, then. Take your time.”

I grin at the clear sarcasm. “Thanks, love. You’re the best. Totally the best.”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s like Tetris trying to figure out where to cram stuff in here,” he says as he eyes the second suitcase. “Did we buy too much stuff?”

“Definitely not,” I reply, even if we clearly did and we haven’t even been to Tokyo yet. “We can leave stuff here that we’ll get on the way back. It’ll be a next week problem.”

“Uh-huh… sure,” he says as he starts making a pile to deal with next time we’re here.

I slide into the seat across from the guy. “You just tell me where you want things to be moved,” I say as I watch him look me right in the eyes while he pushes his piece across the board without any damn help from me.

“Orrrr you can just do it all yourself,” I add.

“What the fuck was that?” Maddox asks as he hurries over. “Hiro, are you touching him? Because how the hell else is he sliding things across the board?”

“Uhhh… hey, dude. What are your thoughts on a Vegas show?” I ask. “We’ll do magic tricks and since ghosts have no use for money, I’ll just keep all of it.”

He waves at me, clearly believing I need to take my turn and stop fantasizing about our new Las Vegas act.

“I’m listening,” Maddox says, clearly understanding where I’m coming from.

“No! That is not fair ,” Reggie cries. “I was supposed to be your super ultra-awesome ghost act routine! And now this… strange man is going to take my place? This is not fair at all!” He reaches out and tries to push one of my pieces but merely ends up scooting it a small fraction. “No!”

Then he does some weird like… fainting act, as though he’s a Victorian woman with a too tight corset. I’m one hundred percent positive Natalie is supposed to catch him, but she does no such thing and even takes a step back as he falls.

“That looks like it hurt,” Natalie says.

“Dammit, Natalie, you had one job and that was to catch me. I’m going to get my Vegas act one way or another!”

“How sad,” she says sarcastically. “I’m far more interested in watching Hiro get his ass absolutely handed to him. Like look how sad this is. Come on, Reggie. You’ll immediately feel better if you watch.”

“Shut up, Natalie. I’m doing a good job,” I retort as I hold the piece I was about to move, but now the guy across from me looks so fucking smug that I realize I’ve made a horrible choice.

“Honey…” Maddox says, and it’s not the word but the tone he uses. It’s such a clear “Hiro, how can you suck so badly at this?” that I glower at him too.

“Why doesn’t everyone worry about themselves?” I complain as I set my piece down. “And you.” I jab a finger at the ghost. “You’re going to tell me your name when I kick your ass.”

He ignores me and proceeds to dash my hopes and dreams as he jumps a significant number of my pieces.

“Not fair! I was distracted! Those two distracted me! And Maddox distracted me with his condescending ‘honey’!”

“Is he… is he blaming his inadequacies on us? How sad and embarrassing,” Reggie says as I proceed to get absolutely demolished. Like the man needs one more move to put me out of my misery. And instead, he’s staring at the board as though he might not know where to go.

It’s so cocky and obviously meant to wave it in my face that I’m awful at this.

He taps his chin like he’s “thinking” about where to go as I glower at him.

“You want to be like that, huh?” I ask as I reach out to him and touch his arm, and instead of making him solid like I generally would to help a ghost, I make him incorporeal. His finger passes right through the playing piece.

He catches my eyes and gives me a look, then smacks my hand away and jumps my piece, winning the game.

“That was so sad,” Natalie says. “I kind of had to look away due to secondhand embarrassment.”

Maddox is trying not to laugh, so I shift my glower onto him as he comments, “You know, Hiro, I can’t see what happened, but the way you said, ‘You want to be like that?’ made me think that you had some awesome trick up your sleeve, and then I got to watch you get demolished.”

“Maddox, you’re supposed to be on my side for all of this,” I say as the man smugly watches me. “I don’t suppose I still get your name?”

He’s so cocky as he gets up, dusts his hands off like it was a job well done, and leaves the room—but not before pushing over the suitcase Maddox had been finishing up.

“I can’t tell whether you made a friend or an enemy.”

“I can’t either,” I realize. “But I do know that I’m going to nurse my wounded pride in bed because I’m tired.”

I sink down as Maddox comes over and climbs in next to me.

“It’s okay. You’ll always be a winner in my eyes.”

“A wiener, maybe,” Reggie says, like he’s twelve years old.

“You have to be a winner to get a man like that,” Natalie chimes in. “Tell him you’ll feel better if he pushes his shirt up. I’ll sure feel better.”

“Maddox, they’re telling me they’ll feel better if you take your shirt off, but what I want to know is why they never tell me that they’ll feel better seeing my shirt off?” I lift my shirt up to my chin, making sure to tuck it under my armpits in the most unattractive manner that I can before smacking my stomach.

“It sure makes me feel better,” Maddox tells me as he grabs me and pulls me in close.

“Ew, gross. I’m going to vomit and it’s going to be so gross and like… everywhere,” Reggie says. “But I also kind of want to lay my head on your bare tum tum.”

Scarred by his comments, I cuddle against Maddox in the hopes of finding happiness that will help me recover from all the blows I’ve been dealt this evening. It might be a hard endeavor, but maybe someday I will be able to pretend my ghosts aren’t evil.