“What about doing things that are familiar to him?”Celeste suggested.“I’m not sure about the therapeutic efficacy of that, but it’s more feasible than finding a shrink we can explain all this ‘magic’ stuff to—unlessyouwant to give him therapy?”
“No, that would violate several ethical boundaries.”Blake shook his head.“But I think you’re on the right track with doing familiar things.”
He looked back to face Marin.“If I had to guess… I’d say you’re about my age.Mid-twenties?”
Marin raised his hands and gave a hopeless shake of his head.“Sorry, I can’t recall.”
“And with him being a pygmalion, there’s no telling how old he actually was when he died.”Celeste sighed.“The person who made the merman sculpture could have decided to have him be any age—he could have been a geezer for all we know.”
Marin laughed.“Okay, well—at least I can confidently say I don’t think I was an old man.”
“Okay, so let’s go with mid-twenties,” Celeste decided.“What are some things we in our mid-twenties get up to?”
Work a dead-end job, Blake thought.He kept his mouth shut, since it would make a deeply unhelpful suggestion.
“Hang out with your friends?”he supplied instead.“Play videogames?”
“Smoke weed, social media, cook,” Celeste rattled off.“Watch garbage TV, go out to eat, clubbing—”
At the mention of “clubbing”, Marin immediately perked up.“Like dancing?”
“That sure got your attention!”Celeste grinned.“Okay, clubbing it is.”
They leaned down over the poster board and under Tuesday wrote: ‘Clubbing PM.’“Since you’ll be at Water Zone tomorrow night, I’ll take you guys out on Tuesday—we’ll get shitfaced and have a ball.How’s that sound?”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Marin agreed.“Thanks, Celeste.”
“Least I can do, after…” They made a flippant hand gesture, as if indicating the entire situation at hand.“I can list off some more stuff if you want, see if anything rings a bell?”
“I’m getting pretty tired, actually,” Marin said, glancing towards Blake.“This has been really helpful, but I think we ought to call it a night, especially if we’re going to check out that studio in the morning.I hope it isn’t too far?”
Blake shook his head.“You don’t have to worry about that—nowhere would be too far.But it’s only a half-hour away, so we shouldn’t have to get uptooearly.”
“Okay, well,” Celeste said, jotting something down in each of the top columns and capping the pen.“I’ll start my search in the morning.Call or text if anything comes up.”
“Okay,” Blake agreed, craning to see what Celeste had written.Under ‘Dying Wish’they had scrawled ‘Find manufacturing info to search for a lead and jog memories’and ‘ditto’ beneath ‘Place of Death’.Chillingly, inside the ‘Worthy of Love’column, they had simply written: ‘Don’t screw it up’.
Something like ice water sloshed in Blake’s gut.
“Well, I’m out of this dump,” Celeste announced, slapping their lap and crossing the room to grab their purse.“Get some good sleep.”
“You, too,” Marin softly called after them.Blake shook himself, having just enough time to wish Celeste a safe drive before they departed.
After locking up behind them, Blake wasted no time flying back into action, determined not to let his anxiety get the better of himself.“I’ll be right back, I have to tidy up my room real quick.”
Marin nodded and settled back into the sofa.He propped his elbow up on the arm, resting his chin on his palm.“No worries.Take your time.”
Blake returned to his room, scouring the space for anything humiliating.Within three seconds, he clocked the Sephiroth body pillow that was gifted to him as a half-joke and shoved it away in his closet.A copy of a monster romance novel that his friend Alex had loaned him ended up banished to the depths as well.
Blake peeled the fitted sheet off of his bed and bunched up the rest of his bedclothes inside of it.Since they didn’t have a kitchen table, he’d been making a nasty habit of eating dinner in bed while watching anime and there was no telling what kind of crumbs were in there or even how old they were.He headed into the bathroom, groping around the linen closet for a fresh set of sheets.
Ryan materialized in the doorway moments later, blinking at his roommate.His caramel and chocolate-colored hair was piled into a bun threatening to spill off the top of his head, earlobes sagging from where he’d taken out his gauges for the night.
“Shit, sorry, did I wake you up?”Blake asked.Ryan shook his head, scrubbing at the scruff on his chin.
“Nuh-uh, you’re fine,” he said, shuffling over to the toilet.His mouth stretched open into a yawn.“Is there someone out in the living room?Did you bring someone home?”
“Uh,” Blake uttered.Neither of them had a problem with the other bringing friends or dates home as long as they were quiet, but it was still a little awkward.Not to mention the fact that Ryan’s datemate had been there moments earlier.“Yeah, actually.Friend of a friend.He needs a place to stay for a few nights.That cool?”
