My Wife is an E-Ghost!

Tynan’s Dream

Tynan was taking a break. He'd call it a rather productive day as the game was making good progress. The first dungeon stage was complete and he tested it several times to find bugs. Laura even helped out as the game reset, giving him comments about where she found it lacking or difficult to cope with. He didn't know that the e-ghost was a gamer but Laura turned out to be rather decent with games even though she claimed that she didn't play games often in the past.

"You're actually quite good at this," Laura commented and Tynan rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Thanks. I actually wanted to work in a game development company that's why I studied programming. It's hard to get into that market here in Australia. I did think about moving abroad to America but nobody would employ me. The dream company to work for would be Playrix in Russia but I don't speak Russian so that's a huge no-go. Getting a job at that shitty convenience store was the only thing that allowed me to pay my bills and work on this project at the same time."

The dirt princess nodded. She could see how passionate and dedicated he was to the game development project. Compared to his sloppy lifestyle and passive attitude towards work, seeing this new side of Tynan made Laura reconsider her opinion about him. The programmer may not always be reliable but he would be the kind to pull through by the skin of his teeth if the situation called for it.

"What kind of job would you rather be working if you can't get into a game development company? I'm sure staying at the convenience store isn't a long-term solution for you."

Tynan smiled and looked at Laura. He knew that the e-ghost was concerned especially how she saw him getting mistreated and scolded by the manager. He didn't say it but he knew that Laura must have been the reason behind the manager's strange behaviour the other day. Ever since then, the manager picked on him less and was very jumpy around the shop as if something was coming after him. Laura's giggles weren't subtle either and once or twice, he would see a floating rag pass by behind him from the reflection of the glass door. The rag would sometimes land on the manager's head or at the manager's feet as he passed by. The 'haunting' continued until the poor manager wanted to call the police. Thankfully, Laura stopped her mischief and Tynan was relieved that the manager was still too dumb to figure out that the hauntings only happened when it was his shift to work.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "I would prefer to work a part-time job that will put my skills to better use. I like working with technology so fixing phones and computers are ideal for me. However, I know how much the phone repair shop assistants get a month. They don't earn as much as retail staff. I was a waiter once before and it paid really well because some customers are generous with their tips if they liked your service. However, I didn't continue because some people can be really nasty and the boss wanted us to groom ourselves to look presentable. I couldn't meet their stringent standards so I left after six months."

Laura looked at Tynan from head to feet and sighed. She could understand why his boss didn't like him as a waiter even if Tynan was hardworking. While the man wasn't rude, he had very unruly hair and didn't keep his facial hair neat. Although he didn't appear to have facial hair, his ginger locks were curly and long.

"Have you tried tying your hair up?" she asked and pointed to the ginger hair that reached his shoulders.

Tynan shook his head. "I don't know how to tie it. Normally, I cut it but it grows back so quickly that I've given up and let it grow out for a year."

"You know, if you can tie it up into a simple bun, I think you can keep the job as a waiter. Also, would you hate it if you had to work in the kitchen? I honestly think that you have talent there."

Laura's honest praise made Tynan sigh. There was a reason why he stopped cooking. Laura looked at him questioningly and Tynan smiled. If she was real, he would have patted her on the head. "My parents used to own a restaurant. I learned how to cook from my father. However, they passed away while I was still studying. My father passed away from undetected cancer and my mother overworked herself to death trying to take care of that restaurant and pay for my schooling fees. I was in my final year of University when my mom left me and instead of dropping out, I sold the family business and persevered until I had that degree. Who knew that two years later, I'd still be unemployed."

Laura didn't know what to say when she heard it. At first, she thought that the twenty-six-year-old was just a man down on his luck with the job hunt after graduation. Australia's unemployment rate was rather high after all and most owners would rather employ white people than a person of different skin colour. Who would have thought that life would kick a man when he was down? Her heart went out to him and Laura wondered if she did the right thing by sending his edited C.V. for the jobs.

"I'm sorry," she apologised softly and Tynan laughed.

"It's alright, I've gotten over it mostly. It's been almost three years now, the pain isn't as great as it was before. Besides, I don't mind cooking for you. My parents used to say that the greatest joy a cook could have was to see the faces of satisfied customers. My father was a Mongolian-Chinese who migrated from China to Australia for a better life. Before he was a restaurant owner, he worked in the mines. This red hair of mine came from both my parents. Can you believe it? My father was an Asian but he too had red hair. Apparently, it was a very rare thing but it happened. Needless to say, he was bullied his entire life for being different until he met my mother who was a German-Australian. My mother was a volunteer at the church and my father who was living in poverty back then was a regular at the church that she volunteered at. They fell in love and saved up enough money to open a restaurant. He taught her how to make his homeland dishes and she taught him how to make her traditional cuisine. They spent a lot of their time in the kitchen and created the recipes that I know. It's practically a product of their love for each other and I didn't really want to cook for anyone else after they passed."

Laura nodded. "I'm glad you cooked for me. If I wasn't an e-ghost would you still do the same?"

Tynan grinned. "If you weren't an e-ghost, would we have met?"

The girl laughed. "Probably not," she stuck out her tongue and Tynan talked a little more about the kind of jobs he applied for and got rejected. He also shared with her a little more about his working experiences and claimed that he would go to another part-time job if it paid better and would still allow him to have some time to work on the game he wanted to create.

Laura smiled. "I hope that happens for you," she said. "We can search for it together if you want."

Tynan accepted the offer but took a rain check. "I'm content for now. Say, what is your dream? Did you have one before you died?"

Laura looked distant when he asked and the girl shook her head. "I can't remember," she lied. "It's been too long that I forgot all about it. Still, living this kind of life isn't too bad in my opinion. I live with someone who constantly provides me with delicious food every day. Why would I complain?"

Tynan gave her a look and wrinkled his nose. "You say that but you keep nagging at me to put the clothes in the laundry basket and keep telling me to fold the blanket. How isn't that complaining?"

Quick to defend herself, Laura pointed out that her complaints weren't related to her current lifestyle but his. They squabbled for about an hour and drifted off to different topics including how Tynan thought she was a good gamer.

"There is still some time left. How about a round of games? Do you play Halo?"

The e-ghost smirked. "I have to say, I might not play often but Halo is my speciality. My highest record was 97% accuracy with 16 headshots!"

Tynan cracked his knuckles and brought out the consoles. "Too bad for you, my record was a 22 killstreak. You're up for a tough fight because I'm not going to go easy on you even if you are a girl or a ghost.

Laura cackled. "Do you play with mods?"

Tynan shook his head. "I don't like mods. Why?"

Laura shrugged. "I just thought that since we're on the topic of how crappy your manager is, we could rename some of the things in there to meatball or fatty to inspire us better. I'm out for blood and nothing makes me more fired up than the thought of your manager at the moment. Murder is frowned upon on in real life but killing someone who coincidentally shares the same name in a video game doesn't count, right?"

Tynan liked Laura's idea and spent the next twenty minutes finding a mod and installing it so that they could play. Once the game started, Laura snatched the lead with the first kill and Tynan clicked his tongue. The girl was a tough rival and while they were on the same team clearing missions, he didn't want to fall too far behind her. Thankfully, this was a map that he was familiar with and Laura missed out on a huge group of enemies in the next wave. Tynan had the upper hand with a preemptive strike and Laura cussed, startling the programmer with her colourful language.

The game became so heated that both of them were shouting at the top of their lungs and screaming at each other when their cooperation failed. The neighbour had to slam on the wall for Tynan to notice how loud he was and how late it had become. They continued their game until midnight and once the last mission was finally cleared, Tynan checked the summary for their scores and laughed. Laura might have broken his previous highest record but Tynan outdid himself and won Laura by two more kills.

"Good game," he laughed and yawned. Laura noticed how late it was and told him to take a quick shower before he slept. She had a ton of fun tonight and knew that Tynan did too. She didn't have to check his Happiness Meter to know that it was doing good. The e-ghost floated around in the phone for a while and did air somersaults until Tynan came out from the bathroom.

"I had fun," he told her and Laura bounced off from one wall to the next on the screen.

"So did I. Wanna watch a movie tomorrow after you're done with your game? I recommend John Wick or Kill Bill," she grinned and Tynan approved of her choices.

"Alright. I'm going to sleep now. I'll work on creating that app for you to log your snooze periods so we can study what's going on with the system. Good night, Laura. And thank you. You have no idea how much better my life has become ever since I got to know you."

Laura didn't say anything to that and bade Tynan goodnight while helping him off the lights by manipulating a spoon. It didn't take long for the programmer to start snoring and Laura turned off the speaker function from her system so that she muted his snores. Now, she was going to work on finding out what happened to her in her previous life before she died.

"Internet Consultant. Search for Renald Dillon," she demanded. If the system wouldn't allow her to search for information regarding herself, she would start to find clues by searching on the other dirt bikers. Renald Dillon was the first person she thought about, seeing as he was that rookie who crashed into her.