168

The crowd was obviously getting ready to enjoy the entertainment, but the woman with the black hair seated across from him looked anything but happy. She rested her chin on her hand and gave him a tight smile.

"Well, time is ever precious." She rubbed her chin for a moment and then sat up straight in her chair. "Now, obviously something is amiss here. You do realize that you've failed to ask me my name? Have you thought about yourself? Could you tell me your name?"

"I don't know, I don't think so. I Didn't really think about it."

"And I think that we've already been going over this haven't we. Your name is Itzi."

He smiled when he heard the name. Itzi, my name.

"Remembrance, that is good. It's never really a blank slate, that's just something philosophers like to argue about. There's always a little something left scratched on the tablet. So your name is Itzi. My name is Chicome. We don't have much time."

As if on cue the performer on the stage began to play his musical instrument. A sad an melancholy minor tune began to spread over the bar. The performer was obviously talented, as the song was complex but seemed simple as layers of notes were effortlessly piled upon each other.

"He plays well." Itzi said.

"Yes." Chicome said with a huff. "And he has a flair for the dramatic, melodramatic if you ask me, and he's also very full of himself. And I think he's doing this just to annoy me." She looked towards the stage and continued to to talk, and although her words were aloud it seemed to Itzi as though she was speaking to herself. "But he has his own games to play. He's been on the board for a long time, perhaps he forgets himself."

The two sat and listened to the performer play and sing. His song was of lost love, young lovers separated by a heaving earth and a raging river. They grow old apart their love for each other remaining pure. Then on the last day of their lives they both return to the river and die, with their lover in their eyes, on opposite banks of the river.

Chicome sighed and turned her head back to regard Itzi. Her eyes were glassy with tears that had not been allowed to truly form, and there was a sadness in her face that reflected the contents of the song. The applause form the crown only died when the performer in green began playing the next song.

"You're dead Itzi. This is the afterlife."