On Monday, I arrive at the winery at my appointed time. It's a cold day, with a grey sky, but I find it very beautiful. As I enter, Mr. Lau extends his arms, as if he were going to give me a hug, but he stops abruptly and just pats me on the shoulder. Maybe he's not ready for that yet. Neither am I.

Mel arrives an hour later, I hear the bells ringing as she crosses and Mr. Lau greets her, then appears behind me with his apron on as I am arranging the sponges in their basket. It is another Monday, ordinary and normal, even though four days earlier we almost died. He looks at me and smiles. “I thought you wouldn’t come back,” he says.

“Why wouldn’t I?” I reply, and she bends down to help me arrange the merchandise. The rest of the day continues as normal. I’m cheerful, everyone else seems to be. We sell little, as is usual on Mondays. Before our shifts end, Mr. Lau gives us some complimentary drinks. As Mel and I walk away, the red neon sign with the letters DONGXI goes out. We both stand outside, waiting. “Where should we go?” I ask.

…

We came to a sushi restaurant. Mel told me earlier that it's not that expensive, and the food is good. I've never had sushi before, and I was a little apprehensive after hearing that it's raw fish. I'll give it a try just because Mel seemed excited to come.

Pushing open the glass doors, I feel like I’m back in the place where we work, but I can make out that the characters on the wall are different than the ones adorning DONGXI. The place isn’t completely full, but we decide to sit in a corner anyway, where there’s a small wooden table with only two chairs. At the other tables I see couples, holding hands, taking pictures of their food, chatting with empty glasses filling the space between them. Returning my gaze to my table, I spot Melpomene. It’s been a long time since I’ve been friends with a girl. A long time since I’ve had another friend who… well, it’s been a while since I’ve gone out to dinner with anyone, too.

A waiter takes our order, Mel knows what to order, I just order whatever I see on the menu. I’m in a good mood, so I order a beer. “You look like you really like beer, but you’re only eighteen,” Melpomene comments as I take a sip. The bitter sensation in my throat brings back another memory. An intimate moment between two friends, sharing a drink. It’s strange to feel so comfortable and yet still grieving.

“Eh, yeah, how did you knew that?

“You are in the news Mr. Horace. How long have you been drinking?

“True, eh, not long… How come you didn’t show up?”

“My mother said she did hear something about me… but they listed me as an affected person, can you believe it?”

“If they only knew”

“It was a very strange thing …”

Her hair is tied back in a ponytail, and even though she looks the same as she does at work, minus the apron, something about her catches my attention. Maybe it's the closeness, maybe it's the shock of everything that's happened in such a short time. It's our break, you might say, so I don't feel like chatting any further about what happened. I take another sip of the beer, which I was kind of missing, and decide to finally ask Melpomene something about herself.

“That reminds me… How old are you?

“You don’t know, do you?

“Well, until last Thursday, all I knew about you was your name… and that Mr. Lau wasn’t your father”

The waitress arrives with Melpomene's drink, a blue lemonade. I refrain from asking what it is. Time flies as we wait for our food. Chatting with her, I realize we're from different worlds.

Melpomene Li is her full name, and she was born in another city, several hours away from Azul. She says that there were beaches there, and that her oldest memory is of the waves hitting the shore. Her family is Japanese, she says that one of her parents lived there. She is two years older than me. She has a younger brother, and she lives relatively far from the store. She has worked there for a long time.

I tell her about my mom and Blue, well, as much as I can possibly tell her. I hardly knew my dad, he always worked and left before I finished elementary school, so it doesn’t hurt, and I have no problem telling her. Mel likes to listen to rock, she went to boarding school for high school, and she’s a graphic designer. I listen to whatever’s on the radio, and I dropped out of high school with my friend on what may have been a stupid impulse. I’ve been good at reading and writing for as long as I can remember, though. I’d like to write a book, I tell her, but I don’t know about what yet. When I say that, I take a sip of my beer and Mel looks at me warily. Her eyes turn to the table. “Sam?”

“What's wrong?” Mel looks at me, suddenly serious, and presses her lips together. “Can I ask you something?”

Melpomene asks me about the incident with Rodrigo, she says she heard it from one of the policemen at the station, and then from her father. It seems that at first they thought I had attacked Hernandez and then Mel. I might be more surprised by the question, but I thought that sooner or later I would have to talk about it. The truth is that I have never talked about it, it's not like much time has passed since that day.

She’s told me about her powers, and we’ve started talking about ourselves. I trust her. The food arrives, and I go over the general outline of what happened. About the stupid idea we had, and what it led to. I also talk a little about Rodrigo. The brother he was to me, the memories of school, how we saw each other practically every day. Mel is shocked, but doesn’t say anything about it. Instead, she asks me if my wounds have healed. “They hurt sometimes, but it’s strange… like a pang, like I’m left with an after-effect”.

The conversation stalls. Sometimes I think of a lot of things I’d like to say, so I tell them to Melpomene. How I regret what happened, how I longed to visit Rodrigo’s house again, how Dongxi was another home for me for a while. I even tell her that I feel bad for Hernandez, but she reassures me. “You did what you could, I saw it all”.

“That world we went to…” Mel doesn't know what to tell me. If she created that world or she just took us to it. “I don't know, I thought that… it was a manifestation of all my powers”

Finishing our meal, we pay, leave the place and start walking. The time I lived as an abstainer finally becomes apparent: a block from the restaurant, my steps become unsteady, weak. I laugh without explanation and Mel understands what it is about. Taking me by the arm, she mocks how little I have endured. I reply that it has been a while.

“You say you live near Dongxi, right?” Mel asks, her plan being to walk me home and then take a cab from there. When I tell her there are no cabs passing by my house, she shows me an app on her phone that she can use to order one. We really do come from different worlds. Walking slowly, I realize I don’t want this night to end.

“You said your powers change depending on the day”

“Yes, it’s the main factor”

“What is your power today?”

“Mm … I read minds”

“What? Uh, did you read my mind?”

“I wanted to… but I didn’t want to, does that make sense?”

“I don’t think so”

“I tried, but I didn’t really want to, I didn’t feel it, you know how? I couldn’t, a part of me didn’t want to break into your privacy”

“Oh… then you haven’t read my mind”

“What? Yes I have, only now I know you better and I couldn’t anymore”

“Oh, and what did you hear?”

“Ah…” Mel starts laughing “There was a cute girl in the store and I thought you saw her ass, but actually you saw her Godzilla keychain and you were thinking about the movie”

“That’s dumb”

We both laugh for a while. We keep walking and my house appears in the distance, Melpomene takes out her cell phone and calls her taxi. Waiting for it, I decide to tell her what I've been thinking about.

“We still have to figure out how to free you from your curse” I tell Mel, she looks at me and then looks at the ground. Turning to the street, her expression turns serious. “How will we do it?” she asks. I don't really have an answer, and I tell her that, but I know how to start. Mel looks at me expectantly, her eyes look bigger. “I think you should start by mastering them” my answer takes Mel by surprise. “I want to help you control it”.

“And how will I do that?”

“By practicing, well, that’s what I… think.”

Mel’s cab pulls up. It’s not yellow, it looks like a normal car. She assures me that it’s the car she was expecting. Before she leaves, Mel approaches. I don’t know if what I said was right, but she doesn’t say anything else. We hug briefly and I say goodbye to her. Mel gives me a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you,” she says, and gets in the cab. The car drives away. I remain where I am, thinking about what I said. I know that if she could control her powers, they would no longer be a curse for her. But I’m not so sure that I’m the right one to help her. Are there more people like that?

“Did you two go on a date?” Blue asks as she peeks through the front door. Her appearance startles me. “We’re friends,” I reply, and she just laughs as she heads back to her room. I take a second more before I enter the house, the car with Mel in it turning at the end of the street.

…

From the next day onwards, we began a new routine.

Melpomene only works on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. After work, we walk to a vacant lot we found a few blocks behind Dongxi to practice her powers.

On Mondays she reads the minds of people passing by, on Tuesdays she tests her Regeneration: When someone passes by her, a feeling of well-being floods over them, she says that when she touches people she is able to heal them to a certain degree. On Wednesdays she says she can make things lighter or heavier, but I have not yet been able to see that ability in action. Last Thursday she demonstrated her telekinesis to me. On Fridays she “phases”, that is, she passes through walls and can even turn some things invisible. Every day that passes, I am more amazed by her powers. Or curses, as we have called them. However, she claims that I have not seen the most “cartoonish” ones, because she says that on Saturdays she wakes up with super strength, and on Sundays she is able to fly.

The training lasts only a few hours. Mel has not yet fully mastered her skills, which cause her fatigue. A week later, while Melpomene is lifting a giant rock with her telekinesis, something occurs to me and I approach her. “I have a name!” I say excitedly. “Yes, your name is Sam”

“No! That’s not what I’m talking about! I’m talking about your curses” Melpomene raises an eyebrow. “It’s… Ghost Week! Doesn’t that sound pretty cool?” Melpomene laughs about it for days, but eventually, the name sticks, and Mel officially adopts the name Ghost Week for her curse.

We continue to test her skills, and Melpomene becomes better at using them. Suddenly, she is no longer afraid to use them throughout the day. I hear her laugh more, and we talk a lot. It is very strange now to think about what things were like when we first met.

“Hey Mel, do you think there are others like you? “ I ask her one day, while she practices the phase shift. It’s been almost a month since the incident in the park. Immediately, Mel stops and walks towards me. “To tell you the truth… Yes, and I have a good idea of how to find them”.

“What!? Really? Who?”

“I don’t know, I’m telling you that I only know how to find them”

“Oh, then, how? But! Wait! Will it be dangerous?”

“That’s what I’ve always thought, that’s why I didn’t look for them… but now, I’m not alone… Maybe it’s not a bad idea, just to do some research”

Mel takes a few steps back and closes her eyes. Before I can say anything else, I see that something has started to happen. When she phases out, her body is enveloped by a white aura. That same energy begins to emanate from her body like smoke. The energy diminishes, and in a short time it returns to her body. Mel opens her eyes. “It’s… curious,” she says and begins to walk off the grounds. “It’s curious? Mel? Mel! What’s curious!?”

I start running after Mel, she doesn't turn around. When I get close to her, her body emanates cold, and she doesn't answer any of my questions.

She’s in a sort of… automatic state. Mel walks for blocks and blocks, crossing streets without looking back. In the dark of the night, the streets near Dongxi are deserted. About thirty minutes later she finally stops. The leg where I was shot is burning, I’ve had to follow Mel this whole time to make sure she didn’t hurt herself. When she stops, she finally looks at me. Her eyes have been white this whole time. Her pupils appear and she looks at me in confusion, then at the surroundings, then raises her hands to look at them. “What happened?”

“I don’t know! You said you would look for others and then… you walked here”

“Finally!” Turning to the right, we notice that Melpomene has brought us to the doors of a high school. A very elegant one, by the way, with a huge wall separating it from the street. In front of us, a red brick arch extends over an iron gate, and behind it, a girl watches us. “You the heroes from the news, don’t cha?”

She is much smaller than us, with brown hair, and grey school uniform still on. Her voice is shrill. “What? Cat got your tongue? Speak up!” Her accent is that of a pretentious girl. “You are the other one” Melpomene says. The girl has a very confident expression. “Yeah, duh,” she replies. “Y’all came to me for a reason, right?”