Page 26 of The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy

Edgar

“Eddie. Where is she?”

It was the first time Edgar had heard his brother’s voice in three years, other than a saved voicemail that he played sometimes: Happy birthday, bro. Hope it’s a good one . And no one had ever called him Eddie except Poe.

Edgar had texted Poe on the way to the hospital and once they’d found Allie’s room but hadn’t heard back from him and certainly hadn’t expected him to be close enough to be here this quickly.

Questions swamped Edgar: How did you get here? Where have you been? Why haven’t you answered any of my texts recently? Why didn’t you call?

But then he registered his brother’s face.

Edgar had been so caught up in trying to map the changes the last few years had wrought in Poe that he hadn’t noticed Poe’s eyes were wild.

His mouth was slack on the left side where a small pucker of scar tissue—the result of an ill-conceived fence-climbing adventure when they were children—tugged it out of line with the rest of his face. He looked terrified.

“Are you okay?” Edgar asked.

“Allie? Is she—she’s okay?”

“She’s doing fine. Didn’t you see my messages?”

Poe fumbled in various pockets and frowned. “Um. Yeah, no, I… Okay.”

He visibly forced his breathing to level out and tucked his hands in his armpits before slouching in the doorframe.

His hair was long and his frame lithe now rather than skinny, but Edgar could still see the little boy who’d shoved his hands under his arms so no one would see them shaking.

“She’s sleeping right now,” Edgar said, trying to infuse reassurance into his voice. Poe would never accept outright comfort. “But I’m sure she’d want to see you.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Poe didn’t move. “Well, I’ll let her sleep. As long as she’s okay.”

Edgar took a step toward his brother, wanting so badly to fold him into his arms, feel the solidity of Poe’s body for himself, prove to himself that he was actually here.

But Poe didn’t unfold. He leaned a tiny bit closer to Edgar and allowed his shoulders to be clasped for just a moment.

He felt rigid beneath the leather jacket, muscles bunched like a panther ready to run. Edgar let him go and sat back down.

“This is Jamie,” Edgar said, having momentarily forgotten they were here. “My…boyfriend.” He tried the word out nervously. It tasted sweet on his tongue.

“Hey, Jamie, they/them. Nice to meet you, Poe. I’ve heard…a sprinkling about you.” Jamie smiled their warmest smile and stood, holding a hand out to Poe.

Poe looked Jamie up and down. “Hey, Jamie.” He held out his fist to bump, the sleeve of his jacket hanging halfway over his hand.

Jamie bumped fist to leather casually and sat back down beside Edgar, pressing their shoulder against his as if they could pass on Poe’s gesture.

They sat in a triangle of silence until Poe asked Jamie, “So are you the one who got my brother to wear a color?”

“I wear colors,” Edgar grumbled.

“Yeah,” Jamie said emphatically, and Edgar’s heart leapt at their defense. “Beige is technically a color, because it has shades of yellow and brown in it.”

Edgar grumbled wordlessly this time.

The right corner of Poe’s mouth tugged up. Jamie wouldn’t know, but they’d just elicited a rare genuine smile.

“Where are you living?” Edgar asked.

Once, there had been no one in the world closer to Edgar than Poe.

Edgar’s mind knew they weren’t close anymore, but his body still recognized his brother’s, still retained the comfort born of years and years of flopping onto the couch together or the floor; of bumping shoulders to get the other’s attention and taking bites of food off the other’s plate; of falling, finally, asleep.

How did you go from sharing popsicles and socks with someone to not knowing what state they lived in?

Poe grinned, showing teeth. This was not, for him, a smile. It was a confrontation. “Guess.”

Anger kindled so quickly Edgar frightened himself with it. “How could I guess?”

Jamie was looking between them quizzically. “Is this a bit?” they asked.

“Nope,” Poe bit off as Edgar said, “He’s just being a dick, like usual.”

“So, um. Where do you live then?” Jamie asked.

Edgar could see Poe weighing whether to poke around in Jamie’s clockwork and learn what made them tick. He glared at Poe.

“Nashville. For the moment.”

“Cool. Are you into the music scene?” Jamie asked.

“On that note,” Poe said, “I gotta piss.” He stood up and loped off down the hall.

Jamie turned wide eyes on Edgar. “I can see why Allie didn’t ask him to be her birth partner.”

The comment was so not what he had expected, and the notion was so absurd that Edgar let out a bark of laughter.

“How are you? You looked pretty, uh, shocked to see him.”

Edgar nodded blankly. He felt like he was drifting closer and closer to the ceiling. “Been a while,” was all he could manage.

A warm hand cupped the back of his neck.

“Sweetheart,” Jamie said, low and gentle, and Edgar shivered, wanting nothing more than to be back in his living room with Jamie, head in their lap on the couch, as Jamie played with his hair.

A few minutes later, Poe came back, slipping his phone in his pocket. He hesitated at the door. “Y’all done talking shit about me, or should I give you another minute?”

“We’re done,” Jamie said lightly.

Cameron came back into the waiting room, clothes changed and carrying Allie’s weekender.

“How’s that puzzle coming?” she asked warmly.

“Oh, uh. We got a little…” Edgar began.

“Distracted,” Jamie finished.

Poe stood up to face Cameron. “Guilty,” he said, scuffing his heel against the linoleum. “Hey, Cam.”

Poe had always idolized Cameron. Hell, so had Edgar.

Cameron looked Poe up and down, and her expression said everything that Edgar wished he could say: Where the hell have you been? Why the hell haven’t you called your siblings? What the hell is wrong with you?

For a moment, he thought Cameron was going to say it all out loud. But her face went soft, and she said, “Uh-oh, it’s the Poe-Poe. Everyone hide your contraband!”

Edgar sputtered out a laugh. Poe, being the youngest, had gone through an irritating tattletale phase when he wasn’t included in their hijinks.

“That was one time!” Poe exclaimed.

Cameron and Edgar snickered.

“This one time,” Cameron told Jamie, “we had stolen a bottle of liquor from their aunt’s bar and were all gonna try it. Little Poe-boy here—”

Poe looked pained at the introduction of yet another old nickname.

“—ran to tell their daddy on us. Turned out we’d grabbed a bottle of mint schnapps by mistake, so maybe that was a blessing in disguise. I couldn’t brush my teeth for weeks without the taste of mint making me gag.”

“What did your dad do?” Jamie asked.

Edgar remembered the grip on his skinny upper arm and his father’s sweat, which smelled of sour mash and the applejack brandy he liberally added to his beer.

“Probably confiscated it to drink himself,” Poe drawled.

Edgar shut his mouth.

“You gonna give an old friend a hug or what?” Cameron said to Poe.

“I stink,” Poe said. “Been on the road.”

Cameron narrowed her eyes and shrugged. “I’m gonna go check on your sister,” she said. She got a few steps down the hall before turning back around. “Y’all coming?”

They scrambled after her, Poe falling into step with Cameron and saying something too quietly for Edgar to overhear.

A hand reached for Edgar’s. Jamie. Their sweet, comforting presence had been a source of stability the whole night. Now, rays of sun were beginning to peek through the windows.

“You don’t have to stay,” Edgar told Jamie. At the flash of hurt in their eyes, he quickly added, “I mean, I want you here. I just…I know it’s been a long time, and you have a life and work and…”

“It’s Saturday,” they said. “And I’m right where I want to be.” They lifted their joined hands and kissed Edgar’s knuckles.

Cameron knocked softly, then opened Allie’s door. She was groggy but awake, a nurse checking her vitals. It wasn’t visiting hours, but Edgar guessed that since Cameron was a doctor, no one questioned her right to be there.

Poe hung back by the door, and it took a minute for Allie to notice him.

“Poe?” she said. He stood a little straighter, and her eyes watered. “Get over here, you asshole.”

Poe walked woodenly to her side and let Allie pull him into a hug. The moment she let him go, he moved back, staring at her like he could drink her in.

“Where the fuck have you been?” she demanded. “And why are you constitutionally incapable of returning a phone call?”

Poe opened and closed his mouth like a fish. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Ugh, shut up, never mind. I’m so damn glad to see you.”

She looked on the edge of tears, and Edgar took her hand.

Allie looked between her brothers. “I’m having a baby. Can you fucking believe it?” She giggled. It was a sound as familiar to Edgar as his own voice, the burble of her laughter enveloping him in warmth. “We see ghosts, and I’m having a fucking baby,” she said, her laughter turning manic.

Poe snorted. “Dad abandoned us, and Mom went crazy, and you’re having a baby,” he said, then sputtered out a chuckle of his own. He and Allie looked at each other and laughed even harder.

Allie had a contraction and swore a blue streak, then went right back to laughing. For some reason, this struck Edgar as being absurd.

“Poe ran away from us the second he could, I’m a basket case, and you’re having a baby!”

He joined in his siblings’ laughter, and something broke open inside him. Having Poe back had shifted a missing piece back into place. They were a triangle once more, balance restored.

Allie’s contractions were coming more and more frequently. Cameron installed herself by Allie’s side and took her hand.

“Distract me!” Allie demanded.

Edgar scrabbled for something to say, but his mind was blank. Poe’s expression said he could think of many things to say, but none of them were appropriate. Cameron watched them with an expression that clearly said, Get it together and distract your damn sister!