Read Dear Edward: A Novel for Free Online

avoid seeing the lethal sky.
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    —
    They release Edward from the hospital when he can bear weight on the less damaged leg and therefore use crutches. His head and ribs have healed, and the bruises on his chest and legs are yellow now instead of purple. The staff gather in his room to say goodbye, and it is only then that Edward realizes he doesn’t know any of their names. They are wearing name tags on their chests, but it makes his head hurt to read. He wonders if this is another symptom. Perhaps he will never put a name with a face ever again, and the only names he will know will be the ones he knew before the crash. This thought is oddly comforting, as he shakes hands with the bald doctor and the blond nurse and the one with the dreadlocks too.
    He rises out of the wheelchair at the front door of the hospital and is handed crutches. He walks slowly to the car, between Lacey and John. He’s conscious of his aunt and uncle’s presence in a new way. The last time he saw them before this was at Christmastime, when they’d met for brunch at a restaurant in Manhattan. He remembers listening to his father and uncle discuss a new computer-programming language. He’d sat between his mother and Lacey and had been so bored that he built a house using his silverware and napkin. The women had skipped from one seemingly pointless conversation to the next: neighbors, the ice cream Lacey made once a year from an elusive Canadian berry, a handsome actor on his mom’s television show.
    If asked, Edward would have said that he loved his aunt and uncle, but it had always been clear that they weren’t for him, or Jordan. The grown-ups got together for the grown-ups. The gatherings were designed to allow his mother and aunt to share a teary hug goodbye and promise into each other’s hair: We will see each other more often . Edward can picture his brother across from him at that brunch, steepling his fingers and trying to weigh in on the technical conversation his dad and John were having, as if he were also a grown-up. The image of his brother is so painful that Edward’s vision cuts out entirely for a second, and he stumbles.
    “Steady,” John says.
    “Goodbye, Edward,” voices say.
    “Good luck, Edward.”
    A car door swings open in front of him. Only then does he see, on the far side of the car, across the street, a small crowd of people. He wonders dimly why they’re there. Then someone in the crowd calls Edward’s name, and others clap and wave their arms when they see that they have his attention. He studies a posterboard held by a little girl. His head aches as he absorbs the words: Stay Strong. The sign beside it says in block letters: MIRACLE BOY!
    “I don’t know how they found out your release date,” John says. “It wasn’t in the papers.”
    Lacey rubs his arm, and since he is precariously balanced on his booted foot, this almost throws him over.
    “It’s like they think I’m famous.”
    “You are famous, kind of,” John says.
    “Let’s leave,” Lacey says.
    They climb into the car and drive past the waving, poster-bearing crowd. Edward stares at them through the window. He offers a small wave, and a man pumps the air with his fist, as if Edward’s wave was what he’d been hoping for. The clicking noise starts up inside Edward then, a reminder of the staccato beat he used to time piano notes with. He sinks back into his seat and listens to his body. He can’t remember being invaded with sounds like this ever before. Beneath the sharp clicks there is the thud—a blurrier, messier sound—of his own heart.
    They drive toward a house Edward has visited sporadically over the course of his life, but always with his parents and brother. Now he’s going to live there. How is that possible? He tries to recall the name of his aunt and uncle’s town. He watches the cars and trees wash past the window. They seem to be driving too quickly, and he’s about to say something when he spots a graveyard. For