Encore Edie Read Online Free Page A

Encore Edie
Book: Encore Edie Read Online Free
Author: Annabel Lyon
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untangle and get up. Then we have to hug all over again. I kiss her on the cheek and she kisses me. I tap her nose with my finger and make a beep sound, because it made her laugh the summer we all went camping. She beams. “You tall!” she says.
    “She’s a string bean!” the strange man says. Everyone laughs. He’s sitting on the couch with Auntie Ellie, holding her hand. He wears skate shoes and jeans and a T-shirt that says Friendly Punk . He has curly hair and glasses and looks as if he might go to university.
    I say, “Excuse me?”
    “String Bean!” Merry says, clapping and laughing.
    Aunt Ellie is up by now and coming to give me more hugs and kisses. “You’re so tall!” she says. “So skinny! So grown-up!”
    See? “Thanks,” I say, because what else can I do?
    “This is Daniel,” Aunt Ellie says. The strange man jumps up and holds out his hand, so now on top of the hugging and kissing I have to shake hands. He whaps my arm up and down about thirty times, grinning as if this is the happiest day of his life.
    “This my Edie,” Merry tells him. That’s what it sounds like, anyway; she doesn’t always speak too clearly. He hugs her and she closes her eyes, she’s that happy with him and me and everyone in the world.
    “That was unexpected,” Mom says later, while Dexter and I are in the kitchen helping with supper. Aunt Ellie and Merry are downstairs taking showers after their long drive, and Dad is in the den having a drink with Daniel. It turns out he’s Aunt Ellie’s new boyfriend.
    “He seems nice,” Dexter says.
    “He smiles a lot,” I say. “Did they meet on the internet?”
    Mom and Dexter stare at me.
    “What?” I say. I’m embarrassed, suddenly, to have shown any familiarity with the mechanics of romance. “Aunt Ellie lives in Montreal, he lives in Vancouver. How else would they meet? I’m just being logical!”
    “I think they met at Merry’s school,” Mom says. “Daniel is a special ed teacher. He was applying for a job, and Ellie was a parent adviser to the hiring committee. Then they decided to close the school, and he came to B.C. to finish his doctorate in child psychology, but he and Ellie kept in touch. I wonder if he’s the reason—”
    A big laugh, Aunt Ellie’s laugh. She and Merry are standing in the kitchen doorway with their arms around each other’s waists, hair identically damp at the roots and frizzy at the tips. They’ve both changed clothes and are wearing matching T-shirts from the Calgary Zoo.
    “Of course he’s the reason!” Aunt Ellie says. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
    For some reason, Mom and Aunt Ellie and Dexter all start to laugh.
    “Laugh, Edie,” Merry says.
    “We did email each other a lot,” Aunt Ellie says to me, and when I realize why she’s telling me this, it must show in my face, because they all start to laugh again, this time at me.
    “Edie, why don’t you take Merry upstairs and show her your room?” Mom says finally. “I put the air mattress andsome extra bedding up there. You could get everything set up for tonight.”
    I give her a grateful look. I’m happy to have an excuse to leave the kitchen and try to leave my embarrassment behind me like a snakeskin. “Come on,” I tell Merry.
    She follows me up the steep attic stairs.
    “Remember the last time we had a sleepover?” I say. “Camping? When we shared the tent?”
    “Yuh, in a tent,” Merry says. “We had hot dogs.”
    “Wow, you’ve got a good memory.” I plop down on the floor to feed the air hose into the little spout in the air mattress. Merry plops down beside me. “And the bugs—remember the bugs?”
    “Yuh.” She stares at my fingers as if I’m in a bomb disposal squad. I hand her the plastic bellows and show her how to pump air into the mattress. She pumps a few times and then says, “Too hard.”
    I show her how to stand up and pump with her foot. She does it, but reluctantly. I remember this now, how she never liked to try things she
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