Page 27 of The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy

Finally Jamie spoke, their tone so natural and calm that the tension in the whole room relaxed.

Allie had another contraction. And another. And then it was on.

Edgar stood, shoulder blades pressed against the painted cement wall, and watched as a creature tore its way out of his sister’s body in slow motion. He couldn’t imagine how anyone could experience such a thing without being ripped to shreds.

“I can’t believe I did this! What is wrong with me? I regret everything! How did you let me do this?” This last was snarled at Cameron, who had the calm of those regularly faced with the insides of other people’s bodies and equipped with the knowledge to fix them.

“You are not dragging me into this mess,” Cameron said. “One day, it was, ‘I will never be in that mess,’ and a year later, you were like, ‘Will you be my birth partner?’”

“I know !” Allie said, then devolved into grunting. “God, why didn’t I have a home birth?”

“Because insurance wouldn’t cover it,” Cameron said calmly. “And because your apartment would end up splattered with baby gore from front door to kitchen if you tried to give birth in there,” she added.

“Fuck, I gotta move,” Allie groaned. “My place is, like, twenty square feet.”

Poe snickered. “I can’t believe you still live there. Remember how you had to saw your bed in half to get it up the stairs?”

“No one say another word about my tiny hideous apartment!” Allie commanded. “Say nice, sweet, gorgeous shit about the beautiful fucking world I’m bringing this kid into!”

Then her eyes went wide.

“Oh my god. I’m bringing a kid into the world. This terrible world. Where they won’t have civil rights. Or health care. Or breathable air. Oh my lord, what have I done? Cameron! Keep it in there!”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” Cameron said.

“Oh my god. Oh my god,” Allie said over and over again. “I’m gonna ruin its life. Somehow. Oh god! Fuuuuuck.”

Poe edged toward Edgar and pressed himself against the same wall. The zippers of his leather jacket scratched against the wall as he trembled.

“You okay?” Edgar asked, never taking his eyes off Allie.

“Uh-uh,” Poe said, his eyes on her as well.

Jamie was listening to something Cameron said, then they went into the bathroom to get water for Allie.

“They’re nice,” Poe said, nodding his chin at Jamie.

Edgar nodded. “They’re everything.”

Poe’s zippers rattled louder against the wall.

“Are you scared for Allie or the baby?” Edgar asked. He knew better than to put an arm around Poe for comfort.

“Allie.”

“Me too.”

“It’ll be weird to have a baby around. It’s been just us three for so long,” Poe said.

“Weird to have you around,” Edgar replied. “It’s been just us two for so long.”

Poe nodded. “I know.”

They stood in silence as nurses and doctors came into the room and swarmed around Allie.

“Do you know what she’s gonna name it?”

“No. I don’t think she knows.”

“Usher,” Poe said.

“Ligeia,” Edgar retorted.

“Dupin,” Poe said. “Do you know the sex?”

“No.”

“Did she—”

“Dude, why don’t you ask Allie?”

“I don’t wanna bother her. She’s in the middle of having a fucking baby.”

Edgar snickered. Poe elbowed him in the ribs the way he’d done when they were children. Poe had the sharpest elbows in the whole world.

“Ow, dammit.”

He elbowed Poe back, but his leather jacket protected him, and he just squirmed away.

Then, under his breath, Poe began to chant, “Go Allie, go Allie, go Allie, go,” the same cheer they’d yelled at her high school basketball games.

She’d only stayed on the team for two seasons.

After Dad had left, their mom’s behavior had rapidly gone downhill, and Allie had quit basketball to get a job—first at the po’boy joint on the corner, and then at Magpie Vintage.

But she’d been pretty good, and Edgar, Poe, Cameron, and Antoine had been in the bleachers for every game, cheering her on.

Cameron shot them a look, but that just made Poe raise his voice. Then Edgar found himself joining in, and they chanted it together.

“Go Allie, go Allie, go Allie, go!”

Cameron snorted and shook her head.

“Are they,” Allie gasped between attempts to expel her offspring, “doing a”— scream and push —“basketball”— swearing, swearing, swearing— “chant right now?”

“If we had a sanitary garbage can, you could try for a three-pointer,” Poe suggested mildly. His eyes danced with an infectious humor. “A padded sanitary garbage can.”

Cameron cut them a withering look. “You all never did know shit about basketball. It would obviously be a two-pointer.” She grinned, and the smile hit Edgar like stepping into the warm sun on a cool day.

“Would you assholes shut the fuck up!” Allie yelled. “My baby will not be a fucking two-pointer. It will obviously —” She grabbed the plastic side of the hospital bed with one hand and Cameron’s hand with the other. As she screamed and squeezed, Cameron winced. “Be a slam fucking dunk!”

Poe snorted. Cameron chuckled and patted Allie’s hand. Edgar grinned. His family. They were all back in one place. It had been so long that he’d forgotten what it felt like. And now, to have Jamie here with them? It was more than he’d ever let himself imagine.

Jamie’s eyes found Edgar’s, and even from across the room, he could feel their attention, their support.

Then Allie began to do something Edgar could only describe as impossible.

He forgot that Poe was back. He forgot that Cameron was there.

He forgot that he was quickly falling for Jamie and was terrified he’d mess it up.

He even forgot to be afraid that a ghost would appear.

All he could do was watch as his big sister brought a fucking person into the world .

A person who was going to have a whole life, full of love and fear and failure and joy and hope.

At some point, Poe had migrated up to the bed. A nurse wiped goo out of the baby’s nose and mouth. Jamie was bending over Allie and taking pictures of the tiny gunk-smeared creature. Cameron had her hand on Allie’s brow and was stroking her hair back, smiling down at the baby.

The doctor and two nurses inspected the baby, wrote something down, then handed them back to Allie.

Edgar stood, back against the wall, and watched as the blood poured from Allie. No one seemed to notice, too focused on the baby. But bright red blood came so fast. Too much, surely? Life draining out of her. Someone should do something? Why weren’t they helping her?

A nurse put a hand on his shoulder.

“Do you need to sit down?” he asked quietly.

Edgar pointed at the blood.

“Perfectly normal,” the nurse said. “I know it looks like a lot, but we just need to stitch her up, and she should be fine.”

Edgar didn’t believe him.

This was all it took to become a ghost, really: flesh rending. To a bullet, to a knife, to disease, to a fist, to despair. Humans were just future ghosts walking around. Allie would be a ghost. And Poe and Cameron. Edgar would be a ghost someday. And Jamie.

Jamie.

The nurse had moved to stitch Allie up, and Jamie, the future ghost—no, no, Edgar could not think of them that way, because what was the point of living if you were just waiting to die, so stop it —took his hand.

“Are you okay?” Jamie asked, sliding their arm around Edgar’s waist.

Edgar tried to speak but couldn’t. Something was swirling around in his brain that he couldn’t examine too closely or it would slip away.

It was something so simple that it complicated everything he’d ever believed: ghosts were just people; people would become ghosts.

His mind shied away from it, but something in his gut held fast. A baby just arrived in the world was like a ghost just gone from it.

Both of them were helpless and confused and didn’t know how to do anything.

Both were just trying to figure it out the best they could.

Edgar’s vision tipped, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor, head in Jamie’s lap.

He blinked and saw concerned faces looking at him. “Did I…?”

“You didn’t faint,” Jamie whispered. “Just got all shaky and nonresponsive, so I made you lie down.”

“Oh.”

“Are you not good with the sight of blood? If so, you kinda picked the wrong seat.”

“I’m okay,” he said. It would be too much to explain right now, when he didn’t even understand it himself. “I’m good.”

He got to his feet with effort and walked over to his sister. His head was still swimming, and his head was buzzy, but he bent over and looked into the face of this brand-new person in his family.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” he said.

Allie looked up at him. “No shit, me neither,” she said peacefully.

“Have you decided on a name?” one of the nurses asked. She wore a beautiful blue headscarf over her box braids and seemed to have a voice made for speaking to people who’d just shoved babies out of themselves.

“Roderick Usher,” Allie cooed.

“Umm,” Edgar said.

“What the fuck?” Poe exclaimed.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” Allie said. “God, you should see your faces.”

Jamie snickered.

“I haven’t decided yet,” Allie told the nurse.

The nurse smiled good-naturedly and put a clipboard down in front of Allie. “If you’ll just fill this out at your leisure,” she said calmly.

“Do you want me to do it?” Jamie asked, waggling a pen.

“Thanks,” Allie said. “I don’t know if this is one of those weird medical bonding things or if I’m just too tired to hold a pen, but I can not let go of this thing.” She indicated the baby.

Jamie smiled at her and took the clipboard. “Okay.” They asked her a few questions, then. “Um, sex?”

“Female,” Allie said.

“I’d love you to have a daughter named Roderick Usher, to be honest,” Poe said.

“I dunno if they’ll be a daughter,” Allie said. “So I’m going to use they/them pronouns for them until they tell me what they prefer.”

“Oh, right, cool,” Poe said. “That makes sense.”

Edgar was watching Jamie. They were cradling the clipboard to their chest, and their expression was a complicated mix of joy and pain.

Edgar crossed the room and enfolded them in his arms from behind, pressing a fierce kiss against their head. He held Jamie as they answered the rest of the questions on the form, their usual neat block capitals just the tiniest bit shaky.

It was full daylight now, and the sun fell on the new member of Edgar’s family like a kiss. He and Jamie, Poe, Cameron, and Allie made a circle around the new baby, this new person just arrived in the world, as if they could protect them with the sheer force of love they shone down.

They couldn’t protect the new Lovejoy from everything. Edgar knew that they’d have their own battles and triumphs and loves and losses. The world was a harsh and scary place. But they could sure as hell try and make the world just a little bit better for them.