Seeing Ghosts
Karaoke

“Okay,girls, just wait a little bit and I’ll have everything ready for you!”

LeonardVenn, the guy who owned the pizza place, was messing with wires and cables ofthe karaoke machine while Ria and I got ready to perform. We were slightlyahead of schedule. Karaoke didn’t start until 8:30 and we’d arrived beforeanyone else had entered the place for the event. Most of the seats were emptybut we knew that when things got started, the people of the town would startpouring in to watch.

“Howdo I look?” Ria asked, examining what she could of her Goth make-up in the backof a fork.

“Youlook like Dead Alice,” I replied, calmly.

“Great!That’s what I was going for!” Ria said brightly. But her bright expressiondropped suddenly and she sighed. “Gina…do you ever feel like what we’re doingis completely pointless?”

“Excuseme?” I said, taken aback by her sudden mood swing.

“Youknow,” she grumbled. “Singing karaoke in a pizza place in a miniscule town,dressed like this?”

“What’swrong with that?” I said, still not understanding what her problem was. “It’sjust for fun.”

“Well,it’s fun, but it won’t…get us anywhere…will it?”

“Whatis this all of a sudden?” I asked, with a slight laugh, totally bewildered. “Peoplelike to see us sing. You look forward to this every week.”

“I do!” Ria insisted, raising her hands and giving me a pleading look.“But…I’m just thinking…we’re never gonna get discovered this way.”

“Discovered?You mean…like being spotted by a talent scout?”

“Yeah…”

Iblinked at her, trying to properly process the information. “You want to be asinger…for real? Wow…”

“Youmean “Wow, that’s great” or “Wow, that’ll never happen”?” Ria asked, daringly.

“Theformer,” I said. “I think that would be an awesome idea. You’re a really goodsinger! I think you’d do really well.”

“ButI’ll never get anywhere just byhanging around here,” Ria sighed.

“What?Are you saying you want to run away to Hollywoodor something?”

Riadidn’t reply right away. She just bit her lip and gave me this sideways look.In that instant, I knew that that was exactlywhat she wanted to do. I sighed and grabbed her shoulder, smiling at her.

“Look,you think you’ll get anywhere without a high school diploma, your parent’sblessing, and being any younger than eighteen?” I asked, seriously. “Giveyourself some time, that’s all. Relax. You’re still in high school. This yearis almost over, right? In a few more weeks, school will be out. After summer,we’ll be in senior year, then we’ll graduate and then we can start worryingabout what to do with the rest of our lives. That’s what being in school is allabout, right? Just give it some time…and make sure your parents know what youwant to do. They’re gonna want to know.”

Riashrugged. “They only pay attention to me when I’m doing something they don’tapprove of. Otherwise, they ignore me. Why do you think I have to sneak out? Sothey can keep living in their fantasy world where they have a mindless droneliving in the house that does nothing but go to school, eat, and sleep.”

“They’llunderstand! Give it some time. You’ll see. Mom says that my grandma and grandpahad attachment issues too, but once the “empty nest” syndrome kicks in, they’llbe dying for a word with you.” I raised my hand and touched her facecomfortingly. “A little more than a year, that’s all. You’ll just have to waituntil we graduate and then you can do anything you want…’kay?”

Riagave me a half-grin. “You know…you’re going to make one great therapist oneday.”

Ilaughed. “Well, with you for a friend, I get lots of practice.”

“Ha,ha,” she said, dryly.

“Okay,girls,” Leonard called. “I’ve got it set up. You want to come up and test itfor me?”

“Sure,”I called back. I nodded for Ria to come with me and we walked onto the platformwith the karaoke machine.

Iglanced around the place and it was still mostly empty. I saw that someone hadcome in while we were talking, but he had his face hidden by a menu and alittle kid that I’d seen earlier sitting at a table alone with his head restingon his folded arms. His longish, auburn hair was falling lazily in his face. Helooked about eleven or twelve and definitely not old enough be going places byhimself. Was he waiting for someone?

“Ladies,whenever you’re ready,” said Leonard, sitting by the machine.

“Howabout we practice with an Anna Greenburg song before we tackle Aquadeus?” Isuggested.

“Soundsgood,” said Ria, tapping the microphone to see if it was on.

AnnaGreenburg was a singer who did a lot of slow, sensual songs so it was a goodidea to warm up with her before switching to the cool rock of Aquadeus. Leonardturned on the music and Ria and I began to sing. We were always a good pair,vocally. Ria’s voice was low and sexy where mine was high and clear. We swayeda little to the song, more comfortable playing it up since there were so fewpeople here to see us in case we made fools of ourselves. That was also one ofthe reasons that we dressed up when we sang. We could blame anything we did onour characters, not ourselves.

Thesong eventually drew to a long, drawn-out close and we stepped away from themicrophones to the sound of Leonard clapping for us.

“Nicework,” he said, encouragingly. “Very good! You guys are gonna knock ‘em deadtonight!”

Weturned to thank him when we noticed that the clapping hadn’t stopped. The soundof slow, loud claps echoed through the nearly empty pizza bar. I twisted backand saw that the guy who’d had his face hidden by the menu had revealed himselfand clapped so that everyone could hear.

“My,my, my!” he said. “Bravo! You don’t expect to come in and hear something likethat in a place like this. You girls can sing!”

Heleaned into the light of the lamp that dangled over his table and I could keepmyself from gasping. I knew that guy! But…there was no possible way…it couldn’tbe that guy…but it looked just like him…

Riahad noticed too. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “Ah…Ah…Ah…Ah…”was all she seemed able to say.

Theguy at the table, who was now standing up and walking our way, was reallyhandsome in a kind of punk way. He had black hair, the kind of black thatlooked almost blue in the right lighting and was slicked stylishly to one sideso that some of it fell over one of his eyes. He was dressed simply in a whiteshirt and jeans, but was overly accessorized with metal bracelets, black gloveswith the finger tips cut off and metal knuckles, and at least seven necklaces,though he did not seem to have any piercings. There was a white stickprotruding from his lips that, at first, I’d thought was a cigarette but uponcloser inspection I saw it was a lollipop stick. He looked almost exactly likethe picture on one of the CDs I had at home…

“You’re…aren’tyou…?” I began, not daring to believe.

“Aren’tI…what?” he asked, removing the lollipop from his mouth to grin at me.

“Ah…Ah…Ah…”Ria kept stammering, pointing at him.

“You’renot going to sneeze are you?” the guy asked her. “Well, if you are, bless youin advance.”

“AQUADEUS!”Ria finally managed to say.

Theguy smiled. “Ooh! That’s what this is about…well, yeah, I guess that’s me.”

“R-really!”I cried, feeling myself blush head to toe. “You’re…Aquadeus…for real?!”

“LastI checked.”

Riascreamed. “Oh…OMIGOSH! Omigosh! Omigosh! I…AM…YOUR…BIGGEST…FAN! I love yourmusic! I just LOVE your music!”

“Yes,I guess some people tend to like it,” he said, with an elegant shrug.

“But…what…Idon’t understand,” I said, trying to wrap my mind around the idea that a rockstar, a real-life rock star, was doing in our small town. “I…um…just whatare…are you doing…”

“Here?”Aquadeus finished for me. “Oh, I just came here for a pit stop on my way overto the next city. Hope I’m not being too much of a bother.”

Iblinked stupidly. What were the odds that a guy as famous as Aquadeus stoppingin my home town? I’d have figured those odds were less than zero and yet…herehe was right in front of me.

“Well…um…”I said, having no idea how to properly talk to a celebrity. “Th-thank you forstopping by our town…we don’t…really get that much excitement here.”

Aquadeussmiled and leaned a little closer to me. “Really? That’s a surprise to me.Pretty girl like you should get all kinds of excitement wherever she goes. Andthe same could be said for your equally charming friend.” He turned to smile atRia who, if it had been any warmer in there, probably would have melted on thespot.

Iswallowed, feeling hot all over. I’d never really been told I was prettybefore, especially not from someone like…well, like him. I didn’t know what to think, what to say, or what to do.

“Theodds of my coming by couldn’t have been better, it seems,” Aquadeus was sayingduring my internal war. “We weren’t supposed to make any stops but I thinksomeone might have siphoned our gas. Still, if it hadn’t happened there’sprobably no way I would have stopped here. And it’s just lucky that I likepizza…”

Thewords “no way I would have stopped here” seemed to shake me out of mystar-struck trance. “Why’s that?” I asked, glad that I wasn’t stammeringanymore.

“Well,I mean, who doesn’t like pizza?” Aquadeus asked with a shrug. “Pepperoni,cheese, what’s not to like?”

“No,no, I mean why wouldn’t you stop in our town?” I clarified. “You said there’sno way you would have stopped here.”

“Isaid probably no way,” he corrected,staring at me. As I met his gaze, I noticed that his eyes were a very strangeviolet color. I suspected contacts at first, but no matter how hard I looked, Icouldn’t see them. “And, well, like you said…nothing exciting happens here.It’s just lucky that this place was on the GPS that we even knew it was here.”

Ihuffed a little at that. “So, basically, we’re too…beneath you?”

“Gina!”Ria snapped, punching me in the arm. “What the heck do you think you’re doing!?Don’t…”

“No,no, I don’t mind,” said Aquadeus, quickly. He then looked right at me and Isuddenly felt like his strangely colored eyes were seeing through me in a waynormal people couldn’t. Like he could see right past my face and straight atthe wall behind me, like I was clear as glass. “You know…most people don’t normallyspeak to me that way,” he said, softly. I felt another, unexplainable chillshoot down my spine and I shuddered under his gaze. But the feeling of coldwent away and he smiled again. “Keep it up. It makes you look more…empowered.”

Iblinked in confusion. Aquadeus finally looked away from me and looked over atLeonard instead, who seemed to have been waiting and waiting for his chance toget the celebrity’s attention. As Leonard was asking Aquadeus to get a picturewith him to put on the wall, Ria pulled me aside.

“Can…you…believe that this is happening!?” sheasked in an excited whisper. “This is big! Big! Nothing like this has everhappened before! And just when I was whining about never being noticed!”

“Ria,I…I don’t know so much about this guy…” I said, uncertainly.

“Oh,for heaven’s sake, he’s famous!” Ria snapped. “It’s his prerogative to bearrogant! And what was with you?! Why were you being so rude to him?”

“Idon’t know, he just…something just…”

Butbefore I could finish my sentence and as Leonard’s camera flashed as he took apicture of himself and Aquadeus, the doors opened.

“CAMERON!!”roared the man standing at the door. “CAMERON TITHE I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”

“Ohboy,” said Aquadeus with a sigh and note of mock exasperation in his voice.“I’m in trouble now.”

Theman stormed down to where we were. He was dressed in a beige suit and had curlydark hair and glasses. There was a cell phone clutched in one hand and theother was shaking his fist at Aquadeus. “I told you to wait in the bus! That’s all you had to do! Do you want some kind ofmob to come swarming in when they replace out you’re here!”

“Iwas hungry,” Aquadeus said, his tone dull but still with that cheeky smile.“Oh, and I hope you didn’t fire that driver. I already hit him, so…”

“Enough!We got the gas so now let’s GO before the entire town comes swarming down onus!”

“Fine,fine, whatever,” said Aquadeus. The man grabbed Aquadeus’s arm and dragged himout, muttering about money needing to be made and infuriating teenagers. Aquadeuswent quietly with him but, just before he went out the door, he turned aroundand winked before he disappeared completely.

“That…was…”I said, slowly.

“AMAZING!”Ria screamed in delight. “I actually got to meet Aquadeus! This is thathappiest moment of my life…” Ria suddenly gasped. “Oh…oh no!”

“What’swrong?” I asked, startled.

“I…I…”Ria turned to me with a heartbroken expression. “I never got his autograph!” she cried.“Now nobody will believe us!”

Riawailed and I sighed.

Thebrief appearance of a rock singer in our town didn’t go by unnoticed. Peopleheading to the pizza bar for karaoke night apparently got a glimpse of himbeing bullied back onto his tour bus by his agent. That night, nobody wasreally paying attention to the singing at Venn’s but was just gossiping aboutthe supposed sighting of Aquadeus. The way they were talking about it, you’dhave thought he was Elvis’s ghost or a UFO (Leonard appeared to be saving thatpicture he’d taken for a special occasion).

Riadropped me off at home at around eleven that night and she drove away before Igot to my door, determined to get back before her parents noticed her gone. Iwas happy to be back, shaken from my encounter with the strange guy. I wasready to wash up my make-up, put on my pajamas and go to sleep and enjoy myweekend. But before I could get into the door, I heard someone call out to me.

“I’dappreciate it if you didn’t go inside just yet.”

Ispun around. At first, I didn’t see anyone but then I heard that voice again.“I’m over here!”

Thelittle boy that I’d seen in at Venn’s was standing behind the bushes in frontof my house. I stared at him. “Wh-who are you?” I asked. “What are you doingout this late at night?”

Theboy shrugged. “I thought it might be easier for us to meet out here than if Ijust appeared in your room or something. I’m trying to do this in a way thatdoesn’t completely freak you out.”

“Huh?”I said, staring at him. The boy was pale and with heavily hooded eyes,half-hidden behind longish, auburn hair. He was wearing a dark blue denimjacket over a white T shirt and was staring blankly up at me.

“Who…whoare you? And what are you talking about?”

Theboy sighed. “I guess it might just be easiest just to show you.” He made to getout from behind the bushes. He moved strangely. It was like he…glided ratherthan walked. Then I saw why. The boy’s body just stopped below the waist. Hewas floating in the air…I could see through him slightly…the air got colder ashe drew near.

Myinsides froze with fear. There was no way I was seeing what I was seeing. Iwasn’t actually seeing this. I was dreaming…I was hallucinating…!

“Yeah,”the boy said, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m dead. Got a problem with it?”