Dead!

Chapter 34

Chapter 34

"Adam?" I said. "What are you doing here?" He was almost unrecognizable in his suit and tie. It was so different from what he usually wore. He looked nice though.

"I had a piano recital this afternoon, but I heard that the Chesterfield Symphony Orchestra was playing after us, so I decided to stay and listen to them," Adam said. "The oboe soloist was wonderful, wasn't he? I wish that I could play with that sort of expression."

"Yeah, that was my friend Henri," I said. "I came here to watch him."

"Tell him that I thought that he played beautifully," Adam said.

"I will," I said. "I never knew that you played piano though. You should have told me that you had a recital. I would have come to see you."

"I never got a chance to tell you," Adam said.

"When's your next one?" I asked.

"Not until June," he said. "I'll make sure to tell you about that one."

"And I'll make sure to come," I said.

Adam smiled, and my heart began to flutter. "So how have you been?" he asked me.

"Alright," I said. "I was in Washington DC over the weekend, and then the demons attacked..."

"That was crazy!" Adam said. "Thank goodness everyone is alright though. We can always fix everything else, but if someone gets taken off to Hell, then there's nothing that we can do."

"Which is really scary," I said.

"No kidding," Adam said. "How was Washington DC? What were you there for?"

"Work," I answered. "We were covering a Black Afterlives Matter rally."

"That sounds fun," Adam said. "How was the rally?"

"Okay," I said. "How have you been?"

"Busy," Adam answered. "A whole bunch of plants got damaged during the attacks, so I've been fixing them. I've been spending all of my free time preparing for the piano recital, but now that's over, so I'll have more free time."

"I like talking to you," I said. "I wish I got to see you more."

"I like talking to you too," Adam said. "You know, you can always talk to me at work. I don't mind stopping to talk to you."

"But I don't want to interrupt you," I argued.

"You're not interrupting me," Adam said. "I picked this job because I get to work at a leisurely pace. Life just goes by so quickly sometimes, so I decided to slow down a little bit."

"Isn't that all the afterlife is?" I said. "It's just a breather from life."

"I suppose you can think of it that way," Adam said. "So far, I like Heaven better, but at the same time, my life was kind of cut short. I never got to go to college or get married or have kids or grow old. I wish that I had those opportunities."

"You could get married or have kids...well, you don't have that much time here. That might not work," I said.

"Besides, you can only adopt kids who are over ten, since the younger ones get reincarnated immediately," Adam said. "That's not the same as having kids of your own. It doesn't matter. Hopefully I won't die so soon in my next life so then I can do all of those things."

"I'm sure you won't," I said. "Most people don't die this young."

"I know," Adam said. "I just get nervous sometimes."

In a way, Adam kind of reminded me of Caleb. He was intelligent and thoughtful, in the same way that Caleb was. They were both always dreaming, and they were both far too good for me.

I wanted to tell Adam about my encounter with Jordan, but I knew that he wouldn't really understand. He would ask me why I would ever talk to one of the demons, and he wouldn't believe me when I told him that Jordan wasn't really evil and he was put in Hell because he had made one tiny mistake. I decided to keep the whole thing a secret for a little bit longer. "So do you usually come to this kind of stuff?" Adam asked.

"Classical concerts? Not usually," I said. "I don't usually like this sort of music. As I said, I came for Henri."

"What music do you listen to?" Adam asked.

"Pop mostly, although I'm trying to expand my tastes," Ivy said.

"I usually listen to indie rock," Adam said. "I can send you some of my favorite songs."

"That would be cool, but when you say rock, you don't mean emo, right?" I said. "That's what my roommate listens to, and I hate it."

"No, I don't listen to emo," Adam said. "That stuff's a little too hard for my taste, but some of it's alright."

"Maya's the worst," I said. "I wish I didn't have to live with her."

"I'm sure that she's not that bad," Adam said. "At least you have someone that you can hang out with."

"She hates me almost as much as I hate her," I complained.

"You just need to try to get along with her," Adam said. "I'm sure that everything will turn out fine." Adam took out his phone and looked at it. "I have to go. Do you want to meet up tomorrow evening?"

"I'm meeting my friend Samantha," I said. "We were going to hang out today, but we had to reschedule because of the concert. What about breakfast Wednesday morning?"

"Sure," Adam said. "Do you want to meet up at Cedar Creek Bakery?"

"Yeah, that sounds great," I said. "See you then!"

"Bye Ivy!" Adam said.

I found Grandma, Maya, Raj, Jack, and Henri again, and the six of us headed to the train station. I already missed Adam, and I desperately wanted to see him again. Oh well. It would just have to wait until Wednesday.