I found Doc out on the roof, staring up at the night sky. “Hey, hot man.”

“Hey yourself. How’d the interview go?”

“My French sucks… and not in a warm, pleasant kind of way. But for some unfathomable reason they decided to hire me anyway. I start on Monday.”

“Congratulations.”

“Hey, try to contain your enthusiasm, okay?”

He smiled at me. “Sorry. It’s been a helluva day.”

“Our little friend showed up again?”

He nodded, then looked back up at the sky. “Ray, what’s going to happen to us?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, when we pass on, do you think we’ll still be together?”

“Hey…” I held him tight. “Are you kidding? Of course we will be. You think you’re getting away that easy, think again… What’s prompted this?”

“… I dont know. It’s just been a helluva day… Étienne…”

“That’s our friendly ghost?”

“Dont be flip, okay? Not now.”

“I’m sorry. What did you find out about him?”

“I dont know. It’s all confusing, because somehow he cant keep the memories straight. Everything is all jumbled up. His sense of time is all way out of whack. As far as I can tell, he thinks what happened thirty years ago was just last week, and he still thinks his boyfriend is just out for the evening having a beer with a friend, even though he’s finally figured out he’s… you know… not with us anymore.”

“Wait. Back up. Boyfriend? Is there a second one we should be watching out for?”

“No. Georges was apparently a real piece of work. When Étienne got sick, Georges ditched him. Went out for a beer and never came back. And none of Étienne’s friends would help care for him, maybe because they didnt know or maybe because everyone was so scared of getting infected themselves. He was abandoned to suffer through this completely by himself, and he died alone in that room. I dont even want to think about how long it was before anyone knew.”

“Jesus…”

“And so people came in and moved out the furniture and sent the clothes to charity and threw out the garbage and scoured the walls and… that was that. He was a dancer in one of the clubs. Now… no one knows who he was. I actually went down there today and asked, and all I got was blank stares. It’s like he never existed. He was this sweet, funny kid who didnt ask a lot out of life, and Life returned the favour by giving him even less. Ray, promise me that wont happen to us, okay?”

I wrapped my arms around him and held him as tight as I could. “Not a chance, François.”

He sighed. We stood there for a while, content to just be with each other and look at the stars, both of us fully aware that the stars probably couldnt give a damn…

“Âllo…”

It was Étienne, standing at the doorway.

“I… mon anglais…” he smiled, “Il n’marche pas bien.”

“He said his English isnt very good,” Doc whispered.

“Neither is my French,” I gently smiled. “Talk to him. You can bring me up to speed later.”

“Dont leave, okay? Stay with me for a while.”

“I’m right here, sweetie.”