"So what now?" I asked.

"We wait, we spend the entire day at the smoothie shack at the next new moon and we save a life," Jack said, as we walked down the hall to the elevator.

"So what, just go to work? Pretend everything is normal?" I said as I chased him into the elevator.

"You don't have to pretend anything. Come on, we figured it out, just celebrate for a while!" Jack pushed as we descended in the chrome box that felt evermore cramped with Jack taking up so much space. His wide shoulders were useful for so many things, but fitting into small spaces was not one of those things. The odd thing was that he wasn't claustrophobic at all, in fact, we often found him curled in some tight space that he'd managed to shove himself because he thought it was "comfortable".

"You know what? Fine, lets just have this one night to celebrate a win. We fucking earned it solving an unsolvable case," I remarked with a smile as I held out a fist to Jack who slammed his fist into mine with enough force that my knuckles were sore.

"Yeah we did!" Jack exclaimed. He was always better at hyping people up than me. I always made the assumption that was his years of sports coming in handy for an odd amount of real life situations. He never considered himself a leader, but everyone just defaulted to him, he had that presence that screamed leader.

I grinned wide, the infectious joy injecting me with newfound energy as the doors to the elevator slowly ground open to reveal a UPS truck pulling up to the front of the building. "It's here!" I said with excitement. This was turning out to be a great day.

"What's here? Did you order something?" Jack asked. Had I not told him? Oh well, he'd see soon enough.

The man walked out of the truck with a small package in one hand and his phone in the other hand. "Conrad?" he asked when he looked up to see my manically grinning face next to Jack's now confused face.

"That's me!" I said, holding out my right hand in excitement as my left dove into my pocket for my multitool.

"Alright," he said and put the package in my outstretched hand before walking way, rhythmically bobbing his head as if listening to very energetic music. He may very well have been, I hadn't been looking for earbuds, my gaze too focused on the package in my hand. My multitool found it's way into my grip and I flipped it open, searching for the knife tool with my left hand as my right held the package.

"Come on, I can open this in the car," I said as I started walked, my thumbnail finding the groove that would allow me to pull the knife blade from the handle of the pliers.

"Uh, what is it?" Jack asked as he followed me out the doors this time.

"I bought something I thought would be useful. It probably wont be now, but it's kind of a fun hobby I don't mind getting into," I said vaguely.

"That's not the answer you think it is!" Jack said as he unlocked the car to let me into the passenger seat.

"You'll see," I said as he slid into the drivers side, his monstrous thighs almost unable to fit under the wheel. I jammed the knife blade into the tape and cut it quickly open to fold back the cardboard flaps. Under a number of inflated pockets of plastic there was a much smaller box, which I cut open similarly to the box before it.

A small nylon case that was zipped closed fell into the box on my lap alongside a clear lock that you could see the pins through. "Is that a lock?" Jack asked after a quickly glance as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"And lockpicks. The lock's just for practice," I said mischievously.

"Uh, that's weird. Why?" Jack asked.

"I tried some lockpicking and thought it was fun. Really you don't need to read into it, it's a very surface level impulse buy," I explained as I opened the case and removed a thin foam pad from between the various layers of tools. I ran my hands over the various rakes and hooks and bump keys and turning tools. I picked up the lock and looked at the keyhole, reaching blindly for a turning tool and hook, dexterously freeing the right tools from their elastic loops and into my hands.

The paperclips had seemed so awkward, so unreliable. These felt right in my hands, almost familiar as I put the turning tool into the bottom and started pushing lightly, the hook making it's way in at the top of the keyhole and searching for a moment for the pins before they each got rapidly pushed above the shear line, the lock clicking open in less than a minute. It was such a natural motion, like it'd done it a thousand times before even though this was the first time picking up the tools.

"That was smooth as shit, dude. No wonder you liked it, you're a natural!" Jack praised me as he heard the lock snap open right after I'd opened the package.

"Yeah, it's so much easier when you actually have the right tools. It just feels natural, like I've already practiced for years," I told Jack offhandedly as I snapped the lock back closed and stuck the picks back in to open the lock in no time flat.

"Have you? It looks like you have, you're barely even looking at the lock," he said.

"It's a beginners lock, there's no security pins or anything," I told Jack. I had just gotten into lockpicking and I'd done minimal research, why did I know what security pins were and that they aren't numbers that get punched into a keypad? I shook my head lightly. "It's not supposed to be super hard to open. If I want to challenge myself I'd have to get better locks. Apparently not master lock for whatever reason, everyone on the websites I looked at said they were trash." I shrugged and closed the lock again, putting my multitool into my left pocket and dropping the disfigured paperclips into the box to be disposed of.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Master locks are all over though, I use master locks on my stuff I think," Jack said, worry starting to creep into his voice.

I pulled out my phone and looked up why master locks were being ragged on in the lockpicking community and found the answer very quickly. "Apparently you don't even have to pick most master locks, they'll just fall open if you hit them," I informed Jack, my lips pressing into a line. "You might want to invest in better locks when we get home."

"Shit. At least I'm finding out like this and not by having all my shit stolen," Jack muttered.

I nodded sagely, not realizing that he was keeping his eyes on the road and couldn't see me as I opened the lock twice more, popping it back closed each time before I set the tools back in the case and zipped it back up, the small package able to slide easily into my pocket without disturbing any of my other usual pocket items. The lock slid in too, but it didn't fit near as nicely. It wasn't something I would want to take with me everywhere anyways.

I looked up to see Jack pulling into Susan's diner. "This is where you wanted to celebrate?" I asked as a realized I hadn't asked where we were going before. I had gotten distracted by my shiny new toy and forgot.

"This is where it started, let's make this where it ends," Jack said. He was always a fan of cyclical stories, it was no wonder he tried to emulate that in this murder mystery kind of scenario.

Jack parked the car and we both got out, moving slowly to the front doors. I pushed open the door and motioned for Jack to enter, saying "ladies first," which Jack met with rolled eyes. I snickered lightly as I followed Jack through the door and into the open space filled with souls.

"Hey, Conrad's back!" exclaimed the same pretty waitress that was there last time I had come in, her crossed item being tossed lightly back and forth between her hands.

I was met with numerous cheers of the dead as many of them held up imaginary glasses and asked me how I'd been. I exchanged platitudes all the way to our table where we sat down. "A celebrity now I take it?" Jack asked as he noticed me talking to every chair on the way to our table.

"Yeah, something like that. I was probably the most interesting story they'd heard in a while. Dead people don't have much going on," I told him as I sat down. I picked up the menu, but I decided to just get what I'd had last time we were here. Jack did the same, raising his hand and waiting for Susan to see him. She did soon, walking over with her surprising grace to take our orders. While we both got the same thing, this time we paid for all of it, the milkshakes were worth the few extra dollars.

She left and returned in a few moments with the sodas we had ordered, Dr. Pepper for me and Coke for Jack. The odd rivalry between sodas hadn't effected either of us because, turns out its all just spicy sugar water, it doesn't matter. The thought came to my mind and I spent a long time talking about it with Jack, making sure I was loud enough that the ghosts could get the scoop on the information as the culture demanded. The conversation shifted fluidly several times, finally landing on our success at our mission as the food came by. We tried not to let Susan overhear, what we had done was more than a little bit illegal, but we made sure some of the closer ghosts could hear and spread the news throughout the room.

I pressed down on the bun of the burger as I picked it up, letting the egg yolk fall from the burger and onto the plate as my dipping sauce, this time none tainting the fries. I dipped the burger in the yellow substance, filling my mouth with an explosion of flavor. I had barely gotten halfway through the burger and the tall glass of soda when the milkshake came. I let it sit for a moment, even though I knew it would thaw more and more as time went on, but it was dessert, I couldn't eat it until I had finished my actual meal!

"Yeah, this place is good," I said as I cleaned off the last of the egg yolk from my plate with the last bite of burger, popping the the ball of wonderful flavor into my mouth.

"I'll definitely be back often enough," Jack agreed as he finished the last of his milkshake.

"You're food wasn't going to run off you know," I joked. Jack always ate with a speed I could hardly understand, although he didn't mind sitting and waiting for everyone else to finish their meals, so at least he wasn't insufferable about it.

"You learn to eat fast when you have six siblings," he said not for the first time in our friendship. I had briefly dated one of his sisters only to find that Jack and his parents were the only cool people in the family. It took way too long for me to figure it out though, and Jack had to be the one to tell me she was leading me on. It all worked out though, we had gotten farther in life than any of us ever thought possible. Or at least Jack and I had, I didn't know about Hailey.

I wouldn't have known, I was a spoiled only child. Not through lack of effort mind you, my parents just had incredibly unfortunate luck with pregnancy. The doctors called me a miracle, so it was a wonder I turned out as down to earth as I did. My parents were very good at keeping those kinds of actions in check, and I don't thank them enough for that.

I shrugged. "Sounds like you should have had better siblings," I said as I dipped a few fries in my shake before bringing them to my lips. "Want some? These fries are unmatched in these shakes." I pointed to my plate inquisitively. Jack took a fry and dipped it in my shake, his eyebrows raising slightly at the flavor.

"That's better than that combination usually is," Jack remarked. "Those fries are better seasoned than most places bother, I'm impressed."

I nodded, dipping several more in the substance and sticking them in my mouth. I caught some dead people looking at me enviously, but that happened pretty much anywhere food was served, you got used to it. Soon all my fries were finished and all I had to do was finish my smoothie, victory sitting heavy in my stomach, a comforting weight that said "we can figure things out later, tonight's a night for fun."

"What's next? There's no way out celebration starts here," I said as I reached the bottom of my shake.

"I wasn't planning on anything. Did you have an idea?" Jack asked hesitantly.

"We're close to Ozarks. Remember that bonfire we did on the beach there in college?" I asked energetically.

"A bonfire huh? Fuck it, let's do it! I think that one lumber yard sells scraps for dirt cheap as firewood, sometimes they even put stuff in it to change the color of the flame," Jack said, growing more excited as we talked.

"Pick up some beer, just like we did in college," I continued.

"Except this time it'll be legal!" finished Jack with a laugh. He raised his hand and asked for the bill.

"This was great, thanks for the wonderful meal!" I said aloud to the dead as well as the living. The atmosphere was part of the experience too, and they did wonderful at providing a good experience.

We left, Jack driving to the lumber yard first so the beer would be cold as possible when we got the fire going. I helped Jack load it in, filling the trunk and backseat with the material so we could burn all night long we wanted to. We stopped at a super market to pick up copious amounts of beer for our little two man party. We pulled into the beach, stopping at the same spot we had used in college, which this time was blessedly empty.

Jack started setting up the bonfire after kicking off his shoes, walking through the sand barefoot. I followed suit, and while I was fond of the log cabin style of fire building, Jack much preferred the tipi style so that's what we did. I poured a can of beer over the wood as Jack found a match. He lit the match and threw it into the fire, which spread quickly over the alcohol in a blue wave.

The alcohol soon burned out and left the wood burning, the flame turning from the deep blue of burning alcohol to the magenta of lithium. This is going to be a fun night, I thought as I grinned and sipped a beer.