Overview
Spirit of ‘87 is a short story in Quarterlives. It follows Rosemary Carson, a twenty-four-year-old Los Angeles art department worker, after she meets Will, a ghost tied to The Formosa Club.
The story is set in contemporary Los Angeles, mainly around a Koreatown nightclub where modern phones, rideshare apps, and social media coexist with a revived 1980s dance scene. Its central supernatural element is Will, a young man from 1987 who remains in the club decades after his death.
Plot
Rosemary goes dancing at The Formosa Club with Paige Lomell. Rosemary is attached to 1980s music, clothing, and club culture, and the revival venue lets her experience an era she never lived through. After the club closes, Rosemary and Paige wait out a rideshare price surge near the Bauhaus Hotel, watch people through the hotel’s windows, and later sleep together at Rosemary’s rented room in Sherman Oaks.
The next week, Paige agrees to return to The Formosa Club but cancels after Rosemary has already arrived. Rosemary dances alone and sees a blond young man in a collared shirt and red tie watching her. He beckons her toward the smoking section, and Rosemary follows him into a dark staff-only hallway. The young man introduces himself as Will, but Rosemary realizes that he is partly translucent. A staffer interrupts, and Will disappears.
Rosemary remains unsettled by the encounter. Her landlady suggests ordinary explanations, but Rosemary decides the experience does not resemble intoxication or a mental-health episode. She returns to the club with a plan to hide in a janitor’s closet after closing so she can search for Will in the empty building.
Will appears again after the staff leave. Rosemary learns that bright light makes him fade and that he seems clearer in darkness. He initially believes he is still an ordinary young man who has come to the club to dance. Rosemary shows him the empty dance floor and tells him she thinks he is dead. Will remembers trying to cross Western after leaving the club in 1987 and gradually understands that the present year is 2024.
Rosemary talks with Will at the bar, where he cannot hold a drink. She tells him about her life, her San Diego background, and the future’s digital changes. Will is shaken by the realization that he cannot touch ordinary objects. Rosemary leaves before dawn, spends the day thinking about him, and later tells Paige that she is seeing someone.
Rosemary returns the next night in a red prom dress, hides again until closing, and finds Will waiting. She plays a burned CD through the club’s sound system, turns on low lights, and dances with him. When Will manages to touch her arm while she is not watching, Rosemary blindfolds herself so he can remain more tangible. They slow-dance together to 1980s music.
Will becomes physical enough for Rosemary to feel him, and the two share an intimate final moment in the empty club. He thanks her and says she is what he had been waiting for. When Rosemary lifts the blindfold, Will is gone. The story ends with Rosemary leaving The Formosa Club and interpreting the stillness around her as a sign that Will may have found rest.