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the mermaid, didn’t you?” he
asked suddenly. The kids who were in the writing program submitted their work
to the kids in the acting and directing programs, and her play had been a
hundred times better than anything else they’d read so far. “The one about the
teenage boy who goes to the ocean and meets a mermaid.”
    She nodded, her cheeks pink.
    “It’s one of the ones we picked to produce. I’m going to
audition for the lead.”
    Her big eyes got even bigger. “You are?”
    “Yeah.”
    From that point on, they’d been friends. He didn’t make a
move on her—at fourteen, he’d still been focused on blond hair and big boobs as
his criteria for that kind of interest—but he liked her more than anyone else
at camp. They talked for hours about books and music and movies, and their hopes
and dreams for the future. She knew he was poor and he knew she was rich, but
for that one golden summer it didn’t seem to matter.
    When camp ended, she went back to homeschooling and he went
to high school—a private academy he’d gotten into on a full academic
scholarship. They emailed each other a few times freshman year but he’d gotten
busy fast, with schoolwork and his first real girlfriend. He also had to deal
with the rich assholes who took every opportunity to tear him down, and a
father who drank and lost jobs and told his son he’d never amount to anything.
Within a few months, he’d stopped emailing the odd, interesting girl he’d met
at camp.
    And then, senior year, she started going to his school. Her
parents had divorced that summer and her mother had gone into a treatment
facility for mental illness. She’d been the one who’d insisted on homeschooling
her only child, and once she was out of the picture her father decided it was
high time his backward daughter got a taste of ‘normal’ life.
    Luke was a lot smarter at eighteen than he’d been at
fourteen, and when he saw Kali again he recognized his feelings for what they
were: lust and longing in equal measure. She was just as odd, just as
interesting, and just as smart as she’d been four years ago, but this time,
something about her elfin face and small, slender body turned his crank like it
had never been turned before.
    Ten years hadn’t changed that. Kali still turned him on more
than any woman he’d ever met. She was leaning forward now, her eyes alight,
completely caught up in what she was saying.
    There was a sudden, sharp ache in his sternum. The two of
them used to talk like that, for the few short, blissful months during senior
year when they’d been friends.
    “I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of ghosts. They can
represent so many things, you know? Memory, regret, life and death,
immortality. You’ve seen
A Christmas Carol
, right? One of my favorite
scenes is when Marley’s ghost is talking to Scrooge and he looks outside to see
a homeless woman with a baby. And he’s in agony because he can’t do anything to
help her. A reminder that people need to live fully in the moment, to help each
other while they’re able. Ghosts remind us of eternity and also the transience
of life. That’s the tragedy and beauty of being human—we’re finite but we touch
the infinite, and we’re not completely at home in either reality. Do you know
what I mean?”
    She wasn’t talking to him, but he heard himself say “Yes,”
even as the VP said “I think so,” a little cautiously, before he shook his head
and smiled. “You creative types,” he said jovially. “You’re too deep for me. I
guess we’re all good at different things, right?” He checked his watch and rose
from his seat. “Time for my little speech,” he said, moving to the podium that
had been set up in the front of the room.
    “I did it again,” Kali muttered, taking a gulp of wine.
They’d finished dinner, but Kali had only had a few bites of food along with
two glasses of wine.
    “Did what?” Luke asked.
    She glanced up at him. She’d hardly spoken to