“Emerges, Last, Is…It spells Eli. E-l-i. Isn’t that cool?”
Eddie offered a nod. “E-l-i.” He spelled it out, too.
* * * *
I went home at lunchtime and put together my gift to Johnny. It started with another copy of his latest work. Around that, I spread out a bunch of photographs I’d printed off at work and other items that meant a great deal to us from that summer in the nineties and the present winter. A photograph of our Luddy was first. Eddie would be a part of my art project, too. How could he not? I threw in oranges, a 7-Eleven Big Gulp cup, cut and pasted unofficial letterhead from the hospital Johnny and I unknowingly reconnected at, and several selfies. Were they technically selfies if all I included were my hands? I didn’t know, but that was what I called them in my head.
I sp
