Samantha scribbled and disappeared. Greg set the menu down, looking faintly pleased with himself.
“Grilled cheese?” Dustin raised an eyebrow.
“I thought it might be easier to eat than a burger.” Greg straightened his napkin. “I'm learning from my mistakes.”
“Good for you.”
“I'm a fast learner. When I'm not being—” Greg stopped. His jaw tightened.
“Being what?”
“Distracted.”
Dustin waited for him to elaborate. He didn't.
Huh.
Dustin leaned back in his chair. “How did you become a reaper anyway? You don’t seem like reaper material.”
Greg blinked. “I don't understandthe question.”
“How did you get the job? Did you apply? Did someone recruit you? Were you, like, a human who died and got conscripted into the death business?”
“Oh.” Greg shook his head. “No, I was never human. Reapers aren't... we're not made from dead people. We're made from the same material as human souls, just less of it. It’s like we get a teaspoon of soul essence rather than a full helping.”
Dustin raised an eyebrow at him. “A teaspoon of soul essence.”
“It's a metaphor. We're thinner, essentially. It makes us good at slipping between spaces. You know, life and death, the mortal world and what comes after.” Greg fidgeted with his napkin. “It’s different from human creation.”
“So you've never been alive.”
“I've always been alive. Just not the way you are.”
Dustin didn't know what to do with that. The guy sitting across from him—awkward, earnest, currently excited about a grilled cheese—had never been a kid. He’d never experienced a first day of school or a first crush or a first anything that Dustin could relate to.
Aside from his first burger and subsequent ketchup stains.
“That's weird,” Dustin said finally.
“I know.” Greg didn't sound offended. “Humans tend to find it unsettling that something can exist without having been born.”
Dustin thought about it a little more. “So you don’t have parents.”
“No.”
“Friends?”
Greg hesitated. “I have colleagues.”
“That's different.”
“I know that too.”
Dustin crossed his arms in front of his chest, processing. “So you get sent here to collect lives, all while not understanding what makes a life worth living.”
The accusation seemed to rattle Greg. “I studied humans for a long time!”
“Right. But you can’t understand life without living a little. Maybe that’s the real reason you have to eat. Maybe someone in your organization understood that.”
