Christopher Beha - Arts & Entertainments - A Novel

ON HIS THIRD DAY with Stephen, Eddie bought them each a sandwich, and they ate lunch together. Each day he arrived late enough in the morning and left early enough in the afternoon that he never saw anyone from St. Albert’s who might recognize him. He wondered what they would make of him in his dirty jeans and old sweater. He had a long way to go before he matched Stephen’s torn clothes and six-inch beard, but he thought he could get there eventually.

When the weekend came, Eddie bought the same sandwich and ate it on the sidewalk alone. After he’d finished, he wandered the neighborhood for most of the afternoon. As evening fell, he arrived outside the bar where he’d gone on the day he got fired. It was crowded now, but the same old man sat at the bar. Eddie took the empty stool beside him.

“Good to see you again,” Eddie said.

The man looked over with neither recognition nor surprise, as though used to being known to people he didn’t remember meeting. He lifted his glass in a silent greeting. Eddie ordered a beer, along with a burger that he ate while watching Puppy Mill Tycoon on the muted television. He’d finished his food and ordered another drink when a woman walked up beside him and pointed to the screen.

“Isn’t that just around the corner?”

Eddie looked up to see his old apartment building.

“That’s where Susan Hartley lives,” the woman continued. “Why are they cutting to it live? Do you think she’s having the babies?”

As the woman said this, Susan emerged from the building, supported by Rex. Her face was covered in sweat, and she was breathing heavily. The camera turned to show a black Escalade waiting with an open door. Everything in Eddie wanted to get up and run to her, but he knew she’d be gone before he got there. The best way to know she was all right was to stay there and watch.

“Can you take this off mute?” he asked the bartender.

“What’s she saying?” the woman called out.

Susan’s face filled the screen now, and her mouth was wide with terror, but she didn’t seem to Eddie to be saying anything in particular. The whole bar’s attention now turned to the TV.

“Can you put some volume on?”

“She’s saying ‘Eddie.’ That’s her husband’s name. She’s calling out his name.”

“No she’s not. She’s just screaming. She’s got three kids trying to get out of her. I’ll bet that hurts.”

“It looked like ‘Eddie’ to me.”

“Turn up the volume.”

Still no one moved. Susan called out again in silence, and Eddie threw down enough cash to cover his tab.

If he was wrong, he would ruin everything by coming for her. Moody would pull the plug and they’d be forced to raise the kids with nothing. That was assuming Susan took him back. Destroying her last chance might prove worse in her eyes than everything he’d already done. But Eddie’s children were being born, and he wasn’t going to watch it on TV.

He ran downtown, in the direction of Walters Presbyterian, the hospital where Susan’s doctor worked. He was still a few blocks away when the sidewalks grew crowded with spectators. They couldn’t have all arrived in the past half hour, Eddie thought. They’d been camped out, waiting for this moment. As he pushed his way through, they pushed back.

“Wait your turn, like everyone else,” said a girl about Melissa’s age. Then she recognized him and called out, “It’s Handsome Eddie!”

Eddie continued pushing ahead.

“What are you doing here?” the girl asked.

“I’m here to see my wife give birth.”

The people who’d been resisting him now surged to push him toward the hospital. A line of security guards stood at the threshold, but the crowd overwhelmed them, carrying Eddie into the revolving door. The lobby was filled with people, including more guards, but they didn’t seem to notice him, and the ones from outside hadn’t made it through the door. Eddie ran to the reception desk.

“My name is Edward Hartley,” he told the woman there. “My wife has gone into labor.”

She made a show of looking the name up, though she must have known exactly who he was.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve had strict orders from the patient’s family not to let unauthorized visitors up.”

“What family?” Eddie asked. “I am her family.”

The receptionist signaled to someone behind him, and Eddie turned to find a row of guards approaching. He couldn’t see any way through them. If somehow he did manage to get by, there would be more coming. He didn’t even know where Susan was. He had no chance of getting to her. He was preparing to surrender himself when an arm wrapped around him protectively. Martin Dell stepped between Eddie and the guards.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Dell said.

“I want to see my wife.”

“Moody told me to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“Are things all right with Susan?”

“I’m not a doctor,” Dell said. Reluctantly he added, “She was asking for you.”

Eddie sensed an opening in Dell’s tone.

“Do you remember what I told you about Susan in our first interview?” he asked. “It might have been the only honest thing I’ve said in the past two months. I need her, and she needs me. Right now this isn’t about the show. It’s about real people. My wife wants me to be up there.”

Dell shook his head, as though angry with himself.

“The only way I can help you without losing my job is if it looks like you snuck your way in.”

“How do we get around Moody?”

“Moody’s on a flight from L.A. He’s been tying things up with Justine’s family. We were planning to induce tomorrow. The timing was a surprise, and everything is pretty chaotic.”

“So what should I do?”

Dell looked briefly around the lobby. He waved at the guards, who let them through to a small pocket of open space near the elevators.

“Go back to the door and run up to the desk again. After the receptionist turns you away, sprint toward the elevators. I’m going to try to grab you, and you push me away. When you get to the elevator bank, you see the guards and run for the stairs. We’ll get an aerial, from upstairs down the stairwell, and you’re running up. We’ll send some guards up after you, about half a floor behind. She’s on the sixth floor. You barge in the door and say, ‘Where is my wife, is she okay?’ How does that sound?”

“Do you think it’s going to work?”

“It’s the best shot we have. Moody’s on the ground in half an hour. This is all live, so if you’re in the picture by then, he can’t pull you out of it.”

Eddie retreated to the doorway to wait for his signal. He was grabbed again, this time by Yuri, who taped a mike under his shirt. Dell brought the cameras and lighting into place. Eddie wasn’t sure if they would cut to him live or save the footage to show Moody later. Either way, he had to make it work. Dell waved his arm and Eddie ran to the desk.

“My name is Edward Hartley,” he said. “My wife is in labor.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Hartley,” the receptionist said. “We have strict orders not to let you up.”

Before she’d finished, Eddie had turned and headed for the elevators. When Dell stepped in his way, Eddie tossed him aside with more force than he’d intended. The line of guards waited at the elevator bank, but Eddie slipped by them into the stairwell. He took the first two flights as quickly as he could, listening for the sound of pursuers. Approaching the third landing, he realized how long six flights would be, and he slowed to catch his breath. He would have stopped entirely, but there was a camera above him. The person he was playing wouldn’t stop to catch his breath. Eddie’s chest was pounding and his throat began to constrict, but he pushed on. Between the fourth and fifth floors, he heard something pop in his leg, and a shooting pain went through his body.