Part One Two Three Four Five
“Called?”
“Errr…well.” Steve goes over to where Eddie is sitting on the kitchen floor, and opens the cupboard door, “this part,” Steve swings the door forwards and back, “door,” he closes the cupboard, “cupboard.”
Eddie seems to ponder this before moving across the kitchen and opening the fridge, “door?”
“Yeah, but that,” Steve points, “is the fridge.”
“Idge.”
“Yeah.”
“Idge door,” Eddie swings the door a little to demonstrate.
“You got it.”
Eddie pulls a pear out of the bottom of the fridge, “called?”
“Pear.”
“Pearrrr.”
“Yeah.”
Eddie nods.
“Called?”
“Chair.”
Eddie nods, then points to the couch, “chair?”
“Kinda’, but it’s actually called a couch,” Eddie cocks his head, and Steve knows he’s said too many words, so he points to the couch and says, “couch.”
“Couch.” Eddie nods. “Stee. Eddidie. Couch. TV. Pear.”
“Yeah, sure, we can definitely do that later.” Eddie cocks his head, “uhm. Stee finished for little bit,” Steve brings his hands together to try and indicate a short amount of time. Eddie frowns at him, “Stee go out.” And Steve points to the front door of the house.
Eddie nods, heading into the dining room to look out of the window onto the front drive, pointing, “called?”
“Car.”
“Stee Eddidie car?”
“No. Stee later- oh shit, now you’ve got me doing it. Steve later.”
Eddie moves back through the house, Steve following curiously, watching as Eddie goes into the fridge and pulls out a beer, showing Steve, “lat-er?”
“Yeah! Yeah that’s right buddy, you got it.”
Eddie smiles big, showing off his only slightly pointy teeth.
“He’s a prick Rob, I need to you bat your lashes at him and get us both on the same shifts. Have you seen his stupid duty rosta thing? You’re all on opens, with him, and I’m all on closes with that pizza faced waste of space-!”
“Yeah, I saw, it’s shit, I’ll see what I can do.”
Steve had come into the front door just as Eddie had come in the back, Steve can only assume he’d heard the beemer pull up, and now he’s waiting patiently while Steve talks to Robin on the phone.
“Be kind, rewind.”
“Christ, he said it about forty thousand times, like he came up with it himself.”
“I know! That’s what I thought,” Eddie’s tugging gently on Steve’s shirt, “hang on Eddie’s here, what is it buddy?”
Eddie points at the phone receiver in Steve’s hand, “called?”
“Oh, it’s a phone.”
“One,” Eddie says, but he’s frowning and shaking his head, he leans up to tap the plastic, “called?”
“Oh, do you mean...it’s Robin. Birdie. I’m talking to Birdie, you want to say hi?”
“Hi Birdidie.”
“No, here,” and Steve hands Eddie the receiver.
He takes it carefully, gingerly putting it to his ear, “hi Birdidie.”
Steve can’t hear what Robin says, but Eddie frowns and then carefully volunteers, “beer later,” another brief pause before Eddie says, “Stee good,” and then Steve almost startles when Eddie says “bye bye Birdidie,” and hands back the phone.
“Robs did you just say ‘bye bye’ to him?”
“No, he did it himself, why is that new?”
“Yeah, no idea where he got that from, unless the TV maybe...hey, Eddie, you been watching TV?”
Eddie nods, “Eddidie couch pear TV.”
Steve snorts, “you stuck to your plan without me then, huh?”
In his ear, Robin says, “he’s picking all this up real fast Steve, you’re doing a great job, I think.”
“Thanks. Hopefully soon he will get to the point where he can like...tell us things.”
“Yeah, hopefully.”
“Uhm...no good. Bad.”
Eddie tilts his head, “work bad,” he says with absolute certainty, making Steve laugh.
“You don’t like me going to work?”
“Stee inied bad.”
“Awwww buddy, that’s sweet.”
“Sweet.”
“Okay, so this is a walkie talkie.”
“Alkie talkie.”
“Yeah, and it’s like the phone, so you press this button,” Steve demonstrates, startling Eddie when static blasts from the other walkie he has. “Here, you have this one, remember, press the button,” Eddie takes it, holding it to his chest as he sits in his tent, “right, stay.”
Steve jogs into the house, closing the door behind him and going out of sight, pressing the button, “hello Eddie,” he hopes Eddie picks this up pretty quickly, since he’s mastered the buttons for the TV just fine.
There’s a long pause, long enough that Steve thinks he’s going to have to go outside and show Eddie again, then there’s a cautious, “Stee?” And then it goes quiet, so Eddie let go of the button, which is great considering Steve didn’t even tell him that part.
“Hi buddy. You good?”
“Eddidie good. Stee good?”
“Yeah, I’m great.”
“Beer later?”
Steve laughs, muttering ‘I’ve created an alcoholic,’ to himself as he heads back outside, satisfied Eddie knows how to use the walkie. That was way easier than Steve thought it would be.
“Called?” Eddie pokes Steve in the face. His nails aren’t sharp exactly, but they are kinda pointed. Plus they must be like, super strong.
“Ow,” Steve says, but its more reflexive than anything, and then rubs his face, “come on man, you know my name.”
Eddie scowls, but does say, “sorry.” It’s not long before he comes back, poking Steve again, “called?” he demands, poking Steve yet again in the side of his neck.
Steve flaps at him, “hey. Personal space. And they’re moles. Moles. Leave them alone.”
“Mollleeees?” Eddie queeries.
“Yeah. Moles. Like...they’re just there. It’s fine.”
“Moles.” Eddie replies, deadpan, looking at Steve like he’s absolutely full of shit.
Steve nods again, “uh hu, moles.”
Eddie sits for a minute before he slithers off, going half into his tent before he comes back. He moves a little awkwardly, one hand being occupied with carrying his book, but he manages to bring it to Steve where he’s sitting on a pool chair.
He lays the book out on the chair next door, flicking confidently through it’s now well worn pages until he finds the one he wants, he turns it, holding it up to show Steve with a very accusatory look on his face, “moles!”
He says it with the same tone you’d call someone a liar.
He’s showing Steve the page of The Eastern Mole. He’s presenting it like he’s just won an argument.
Steve sighs, “oh boy,” because he does clearly remember reading that page to Eddie.
Steve lies on the living room floor, Eddie lying nearby. Eddie can hold a pencil fine, even if his grip is a little odd because of the webbing between his fingers. So far Steve’s written out the alphabet, numbers one to ten, the days of the week, the months, and Eddie’s own name.
Eddie’s been copying them all dutifully, line after line, and he is kind of getting it. His handwriting is picking up fast at least.
“I’ll get more paper next time I go out. Some proper stuff with lines on.”
Eddie’s frowning at what he’s doing, a look of great concentration on his face, eyebrows drawn together into a frown, tip of his tongue poking absently between his teeth. They’ve been inside long enough that his hair has completely dried; it goes all bouncy and curly when it’s completely dry, but it’s still completely black.
“Eddidie go out?”
“No buddy, you stay.”
“Stay?”
“Yeah, it’s safe here.”
Eddie hums, carefully writing his own name.
Eddie had watched curiously as Steve and Robin had moved all the furniture, but hadn’t investigated. He’s lying on the grass, copying whatever takes his fancy from his book and into one of his lined notepads.
His tail is half curled in the air, the tip flapping back and forth, like Eddie has his knees bent.
“He’s definitely put on weight, it’s really noticeable to me now.”
“Yeah, I think so too, but I see him all the time so it’s probably more obvious to you.”
The kids wanted to do a little get together today, maybe get the grill out. Steve backed it; this is probably one of the last nice days they’re going to have this year. If they don't come up with a plan sometime soon, Eddie might find himself wintering in Steve’s bathtub.
They decided to move the furniture away from the pool so they didn’t stress Eddie out, and they’re far enough away that, when the first kids arrive, Eddie does sit up, but doesn’t immediately move towards the water, which is a win.
“Just play it cool okay, ignore him and he might come to you. Don’t you little dipshits stress him out.”
By some miracle, the kids seem to actually listen. Steve keeps it simple, grills up a bunch of burgers and some hot dogs. The vegetable skewers that Robin made. The kids play on the lawn and generally enjoy the sunshine. Steve keeps half an eye on Eddie. He gets in the water a couple of times; mostly when the kids horsing around gets too loud for him, otherwise he seems content to lie on the grass with his book and his pencils. He's got his shades on, but his skin is so milky pale Steve worries vaguely that he should be putting sun lotion on him.
He supposes a lifetime in a place with no sun will do that to you.
It’s late afternoon when the kids settle in, finding jackets and pull overs as the dusk starts to darken the sky. They’re quiet now, tired out, they just sit and talk.
“He’s there,” Max says, nodding.
Steve turns, she’s right. Eddie’s maybe fifteen feet away.
“Don’t make a big deal,” Steve tells them. He takes a sip of his beer, and then leans back, setting the bottle on the grass. Then he makes a point of ignoring it, “just keep talking okay, don't freak him out.”
The kids are pretty shit at keeping the conversation going now there’s a distraction, and they’re all blatantly watching Eddie. Steve can hear him moving across the grass, so he dares a look; Eddie’s maybe two feet back, sipping the beer.
“Eddie?” Eddie cocks his head, not seemingly over stressed by the situation, “who is that?” And he points.
“Dust bin,” Eddie replies, confidently.
All the kids are lost to fits of sniggering giggles. All except Dustin, who looks suitably affronted.
Part Seven
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