Page 6 of The Player's Lounge

“I can’t believe it,” breathed the man quietly. As they took their seats, a tear rolled down his cheek before he roughly wiped it away.

Quint leaned forward and took his hand. “It’s okay. You’re okay. Just breathe. Believe it or not, I know exactly what you’re feeling, and I know it’s good.”

The man wiped away the trail of his tears again and looked at Quint, relief hitting his eyes. The relief that no doubt came with knowing he could offload the secrets of his past to someone who would understand.

Quint handed him a handful of napkins from the dispenser on the table, and the man welcomed them with a smile.

“Let’s start from the beginning. I’m Quint.”

“Cody. Well, I’m Cody now. Before I was Lawr…” Cody paused for a moment. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, shaking his head.

But it did matter. Quint wanted it to matter. He wanted to know Cody’s whole story: who he was before, why he was here, who, if anyone he may be looking for.

“There are so many things we could talk about, but I know that all you need is for someone to listen,” said Quint.

“It’s funny. All my life I’ve been looking for someone else to share what I’m going through. Now I’ve finally found someone, I don’t know where to begin.” Cody leaned back in his chair, relaxing at last.

“How about the crippling loneliness?” joked Quint.

Cody snorted a bitter laugh. “And the million memories locked away in my mind, the frustrations at the actions of the unenlightened.” He counted the items off on his fingers.

Quint knew he had to ask this. “Is this your first time? As a Player,I mean?”

Cody nodded, seemingly unable to hold back a fresh tear sidling down his cheek. Quint hoped that Cody didn’t consider his decision to become a Player in this life a mistake. If he did, Quint would reassure him that there were no such things.

“Is it that obvious?” Cody wrapped his hands around his drink as if needing the warmth.

“Not in a bad way. It’s a lot to take in, so much to get used to. We have so many things to figure out—how to act like aReboot, how to cope with a completely new way of life and most of all, how to deal with the memories of the people you miss.”

Cody seemed to latch onto the way Quint slowed down his final bullet point, maybe seeing that one person in particular dominated Quint’s thought as well. “You’re looking for somebody too?” said Cody.

Quint took a sip of his drink, then placed his coffee cup on the table. A quiet understanding passed between them, as if they were speaking a language confined only to themselves.

“I am, but this time is yours. Tell me who it is you’re looking for?”

Cody shook his head and a fresh wave of sadness washed over him. “Somebody who won’t want me to find him, I’m sure.”

Quint reached over to Cody. He felt glad that today would end Cody’s time in relative solitude. Now that he’d met another Player, hopefully he’d be set free from whatever emotional turmoil he had trapped himself in. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Oh, it is,” said Cody.

“Tell me why?”

Cody composed himself before answering.

“Because I killed him.”

ChapterThree

LONDON: THE 1980S.

Lawrence sat in front of his mirror, backcombing his fringe, taming it with a few squirts of hairspray once he’d picked off the plastic scabs caked around the nozzle. The smell reminded him of his mother, a best friend dearly departed too soon from his life.

He took comfort in the fact that he now knew for sure that her soul lived on. He was still processing what the man he loved had told him only yesterday.

It was a lot to take in, the truth about reincarnation, a place in-between this life and the next. It all sounded implausible, and it would be had the words been uttered by anyone else, but this was Tim, his soulmate. Why would he lie?

‘Like Cockatoos’ played from the boom box behind him as he hummed along contentedly, sparingly mouthing what lyrics he knew by heart. As the last note rang out, he flipped the cassette over and rewound it to the beginning.

---