Chapter 27 -- The Last 50 Points and Free Day
When I got my final notice from Grim, I decided to spend my last hours dancing. After a while, though, even knowing I might never dance again, I got sleepy.
I awoke the next morning -- still alive -- and decided to impart some advice to Elsa. I couldn't think of anything to say except the parody of the lines from Kipling's
If: "
If you can keep your head when others about you are losing theirs, then you just don't understand the situation." She gave me kind of an odd look and asked what Bjorn had put in the doughnuts.
I went to work and managed to come home with a promotion. I was very tired, though, and Bjorn had left for work already, so I went straight to bed.
A little while later, I got out of bed, then felt kind of shaky and decided to lie down on the floor as a violet cloud enveloped me.
Seiji and Elsa came into the room. Seiji said one of his jokes had bombed and that was why he was covered in soot. Elsa asked if I was all right. "I'm fine," I tried to answer, but I couldn't make my mouth work.
Elsa started crying then and Seiji patted her back, but it wasn't until I saw Grim coming through the door that I realized I was actually dying.
If Bjorn had been home, he would have pleaded for me, but Seiji and Elsa were both too stunned. I did my best to plead for myself. I had no hope of getting through to Grim, but to my surprise I heard his gravelly voice in my ear: "
If you promise not to write anything about the other side, you'll be able to still communicate on the computer. But nothing about what it's like being dead, understand?"
Bjorn set my urn on the dresser and cried when he came home from work. He got a promotion to pastry chef, but that didn't mean anything to him, not with me gone.
Seiji broke out in a rash and binged on cupcakes.
But Elsa's reaction was heart-breaking. When she wasn't crying, she was obsessively making knife racks. She didn't bathe, she didn't have fun, she barely ate enough to keep from starving.
Bjorn finally had a word with her. "I'm putting the wood-working table into inventory for a while," he said. "It's good that you're learning handiness, but you need to learn other things too -- one thing being that it's hard to make friends when you smell bad. I know you miss your mother -- we all do -- but ask yourself if she would want to see you like this."
To my relief, she went upstairs and took a shower. Although Elsa still had bouts of sadness, the worst was over.
That afternoon I was allowed to make my first visit as a ghost. Elsa had gone to bed upon coming home from school, so I fixed myself a drink.
Bjorn was
very glad to see me. He suggested we try woohooing, and giddily I agreed.
It was a little strange but much better than either of us had expected.
Bjorn had the next day off from work and invited his mother over. He felt that he'd been neglecting her in his worry over Elsa. As soon as she arrived, they learned that the GeekCon was going on. "The last time I went to the GeekCon, I was pregnant with you," she reminisced, so of course Bjorn suggested that they go. He invited Norah to come along, too.
They all played Party Frenzy for a bit, and then Bjorn went to pick up some bubble stuff for Elsa. When he was done at the booth, he looked all over for his mother and finally found her chatting with Norah in the karaoke bar. "To tell you the truth, now that I've been an astronaut, the GeekCon is not as exciting as it used to be," she said. "But I'm glad you brought me here."
Bjorn chatted with Norah for a bit, and then she and his mother went home.
The next thing Bjorn knew, his mother had died too. "But she had a very happy day at the festival," Norah assured him. "She was very peaceful and happy at the end."
Elsa came home from school then, cutting short his grief. She brought a classmate with her -- Shingo Yamaguchi. Bjorn was glad to see that she was making friends, but he thought it was still too soon for her to get involved with anyone. Adroit questioning revealed that Shingo was a foodie and outgoing, but he didn't live in town.
The next day Bjorn completed his lifetime aspiration by becoming a sous chef. He also reached 51 points, earning his last free day.
That night Elsa took a moodlet solver potion and started painting. I looked over her shoulder and discovered that she was working on a portrait of me -- from the back, though. "Honey, I don't think I'm officially a member of the household any more," I said.
"You still are, as far as I'm concerned," said Elsa. "And Dad thinks so, too. I'm not doing this for the money, anyway, but to have something to remember you by."
Bjorn spent the last moments of his free day fussing with the cupcake maker.
Those bubbles do look fun, though. I wonder -- can ghosts take bubble baths?
Final Stats -- BjornSkills: gourmet cooking -- 10, baking -- 6
Promotions: 15 -- Bjorn -- 6, Izumi -- 4, Seiji -- 4, Elsa -- 1
Satisfaction Points: 7
Gold Parties: 1 -- Dinner
Good Friends: 6 -- Izumi, Elsa, Seiji Shimizu, Alicia, Harper, Norah
Maxed Skills/Aspiration: 6 -- cooking, gourmet cooking/Master Chef
