The pretzel stand at the edge of town has a red and white striped canopy. The scent of freshly baked pretzels hits us as we draw near.
Kai leans against the stand, talking to Christoph whose hair has grown out to shoulder length. I haven't seen either of them in a while since they live on the other side of town. Kai has a new piercing through their left eyebrow. But then again, they have a new piercing each time I see them.
Christoph looks up as we approach, kohl lined eyes widening. "Hey!" It's been a while, I go by Christine now!
"Hey Christine. Kai." I wave at them. "How're you both doing?"
"Great!" Christine beams. I heard there's a new boy in town...one who has a crush on you, Lukas! Is this him?
Kai gives voice to her thoughts. "You must be Ethan." Lukas, man, you're on a date? I never thought the day would come.
It's not really a date. I frown in their direction. Anyway, I've been on dates before. Why does everyone think I haven't?
"Oh, yeah." Ethan blinks. "I work over at the bookstore, have you come by?"
"Ah, no." Kai realizes their mistake and backtracks. "I just heard you were new to town. We don't have a lot of visitors."
"Pretzel?" Christine asks, before Ethan can question it too much. She nods towards a row of golden-brown pretzels, twisted and sprinkled with coarse salt. Well, I think it's cute, Lukas! You're going on your first date!
It's not my first date! "Yeah, two please," I say, and she hands them over.
We hang around the stand, chewing on them. Ethan is still humming that song in his head but it gets worse as silence falls upon us.
What is that awful song? Kai wonders, swallowing the last of their pretzel. They start humming along with the tune in their head.
Oh my god, please stop! Christine tries to think of a different song to cancel it out but nothing comes to mind. She inadvertently starts humming the tune too. Lukas, please take this guy away before he starts an epidemic.
I let out a breath, trying not to laugh. We lost all our customers so I'm taking him to the forest. No one will hear him there.
Good! Take him FAR away, DEEP into the woods! Christine conjures up an goofy image of her holding up a cross to protect herself from the curse of Ethan's singing.
One of the more challenging aspects of living with telepathy is that a particularly catchy song can worm its way into every mind in town. As soon as someone manages to get over the earworm, they will only catch it again as soon as they step outside.
Remember that Gangnam Style epidemic of 2012? Christine shudders. Those were dark days indeed.
Kai joins in the silent conversation. Wait haha Lukas, just take off your shirt. Ethan will have a brain reset and no more Oompa Loompa.
It would be worse for the town to hear THAT! My cheeks burn and I duck my head.
Ethan munches on his pretzel, oblivious to everything. Oompa, Loompa, Doompa-dee-do. Crystals of salt decorate the tip of his nose and scatter around pink lips.
Bro, you're really staring hard at this guy's mouth. Kai grins at me cheekily.
I sigh internally. Not them too. "We'll get going then." I toss my empty pretzel bag in the bin and turn to Ethan. "Do you want to see the forest?"
"Yeah! Sounds good." Ethan smiles. "See y'all later!"
There's an old trodden path into the forest. The trees grow denser as we walk, sunlight sifting through the branches. It dapples on Ethan's face and dances across his dark curls.
"The lake is a bit too far to walk to; we should've brought our bikes."
"Does this trail lead there?" Ethan climbs over a fallen log, not keeping to the path. That's a cool tree over there!
"Hey don't wander too much around here. You could get lost if you stray too far off the path."
"No no, don't worry, Iâ" He breaks off. IS THAT A MONKEY?
Now I understand how he got lost enough to end up in Brambleburg. "There are no monkeys here."
"What?" Ethan spins on me. Did I say that aloud?! How does he knowâ
Shit. "I saw some birds through the branches," I falter. "Did you think they were monkeys?"
"Uh, yeah. I did." He bites his lip, confusion seeping through his thoughts. Is he really taking me to the woods to murder me?
"Ethan!" I exclaim, turning on him. I can't even say anything without sounding suspicious. I'm trying to date this man and so far I've only succeeded in making him think I'm a serial killer of some sort?
"What?" He blinks. He's still a hot serial killer though.
Okay, whatever. I can't even take his thoughts seriously. "No, I just," I nod towards the log he's on, "I think I spot those red flowers you like behind that."
"Oh!" He jumps down and starts excavating behind the log. Aww he remembers my favourite flower. Now I feel bad for thinking he's a murderer.
I roll my eyes. Okay, good I guess. We come to a fork in the road and I head towards the right.
"Where does this other path lead?" Ethan asks.
"That goes to the cemetery. It's close to town."
"Oh." Are his parents there? "Do you want to drop by there to, uh...."
"No, I...I don't really come here too often, I guess." He already thinks I'm going to murder him, I'm not taking him to a cemetery.
"We can take some flowers there." Ethan peeks behind a tree. "There are lots of verbenas back here." I haven't visited my parents in a while either.
My heart softens, and I chew on my lip. "Yeah, if you'd like to, we can go."
Ethan picks a handful of red verdanas. As he bounds down the path they fall through his fingers, creating a red trail which I follow. When we get to the cemetery he has only half the amount he plucked remaining.
I pick my way through the weeds and sit at my parents' grave. Ethan crouches next to me.
"I think I dropped a few." He opens his palm to show two crushed flowers. I'm not sure how he lost the others during the five minutes we were here.
Wind whistles over the gravestones as he scatters them on the ground. It shakes the branches of an elm tree, and it's foilage drifts down around us. Green leaves stick in Ethan's curls, and I have to fight the urge to brush my fingers through his hair.
"Hey do you think the afterlife has a VIP section, like for celebrities?"
"What?" I ask, being pulled from my thoughts.
"'Cause like, imagine if you're like Taylor Swift, right? All the souls will be coming to talk to you and you'd just be super busy all the time. So maybe you could cordon yourself off in a VIP section and just accept like one visitor per day?"
"She's not dead, though."
"I said imagine." He glares at me. "She was just an example."
I grin. "You don't know any artists who have passed away, do you?"
"Of course I do," he grumbles. I know there are a lot...but they're like really old! And I bet Lukas doesn't even know who Doja Cat is. Ethan hedges a guess. "Probably everyone who's on your...records."
I snort. "I mean, probably. Yeah."
Ethan plucks blades of grass and rolls them around his fingers and tears them into little strips. His thoughts are green and they're far away. And I want to know more of his thoughts and ideas and imagines.
So I ask, "What are your other theories on the afterlife?"
And he tells me, and I watch his mouth move to create each syllable. And we sit there. And he rants to me. And I like the sound and I like his voice and I like his mouth.