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Charles and Niko and Edwin were all settled on the floor already, cross-legged in a circle, waiting for Crystal to fetch the game. Instead of going to the closet, however, she sat down, legs folded to the side, and pulled a deck of cards out from under her coat.
“Please can we play something other than Clue? It’s been three months. If I have to hear Edwin say ‘Peacock’ one more time I’m going to break something.”
Charles grinned. “Yeah, of course! No idea why we haven’t played cards in ages, we love Crazy Eights. Edwin, d’you know if it’s the same number of cards for four - Edwin?”
Edwin was already standing before Charles got even halfway through his third sentence, having bolted up from the floor like it was made of iron. “I’m afraid I don’t have time to play games, today. I just remembered I have paperwork I need to finish for the Night Nurse.”
Niko’s head tilted to the side. “I don’t think so? I helped you finish it all earlier.”
“I forgot a form,” Edwin said, and vanished through the wall.
“If he forgot a form, why is he leaving?” Niko asked.
“He’s very obviously trying to avoid us, Niko,” Crystal said. “Probably because he doesn’t want to play a game he might lose at. He’ll come back when he’s done sulking.”
“He likes Crazy Eights, though,” Charles said, frowning. “I mean, it’s mostly a game of chance, so yeah, he loses sometimes, but he doesn’t actually mind. And it’s not like he’s bad at it, only thing we have to do for it is - ” He broke off. “Oh.”
Crystal rolled her eyes. “What, you give him a handicap and he doesn’t want to play with us because we won’t?”
“No,” Charles said, with the tight-toothed tension that Crystal knew by now meant “you just said exactly the wrong thing, and I’m trying to be calm and friendly about it”. And then he walked out the wall after Edwin.
Crystal sighed. “Well, Niko, looks like it’s just you and me. Gin Rummy?”
Niko smiled. “Don’t tell Edwin, but Gin Rummy is way better than Clue,” she said, and accepted her cards.
Charles caught up to Edwin a couple blocks away, by the canal. Edwin was staring down into the water looking for fish.
“See anything yet?”
“Just some bitterling.”
Charles put his arms up on the railing next to Edwin’s and looked down into the canal. They watched, for a few minutes, a couple of unidentifiable small fish flickering past.
“So, Edwin,” Charles said, “You remember how I was really worried about Crystal and Niko finding out about me being shit at reading - ”
“Dyslexic.”
“Yeah - but then it was fine? And Crystal only said one mean thing before she remembered she shouldn’t, and now she reads stuff for me?”
“Yes.”
“What was the name for your one again?”
“You know perfectly well it is dyscalculia. Crystal, however, does not, because even in this century it has not entered into common awareness, like dyslexia has.”
“Right.” Charles paused. “So that would be a verification, then, on why you bolted.”
Edwin sighed and dropped his head onto his hands for a few seconds before pulling it back up. “You remember how long it was before I told you.”
“Yeah,” Charles said, “and I do very much understand that. But it’s so much easier now, yeah, when instead of hiding that you don’t know, you can just ask me what a clock says. Or I just add up your score in card games instead of you getting that panicky look because you know it’s gonna take you longer and be miserable, when you agree to play at all. And you don’t have to hide your hands under the table when you’re counting.” He paused and then sighed. “Which you’re doing again, aren’t you.”
“Of course I am, Charles. We both know what Crystal would say if she saw me counting on my fingers like a toddler.”
Charles sighed again and watched a fish mouth at the surface of the water. “Look, I’m not gonna try to say you’re completely wrong. We both know how people are about stuff like that. Most people, you can’t add up your own cards, or whatever, they’ll laugh and tease you about it, even if they like you and they’re not actually trying to be assholes. And that’s even without the whole thing you and Crystal have going on and her thinking you need to have pegs taken down. Which you don’t,” he added hastily. “That’s more about her than you. But.”
He scooted his left hand along the railing until it bumped into Edwin’s. “She is trying, though. And I can explain to her if you want, like you did for me, about the reading. That stuff you said, about how even if teasing about that kind of thing isn’t meant to be mean, it still makes you feel awful and broken after hearing it over and over your whole life, and it still makes you remember all the times someone said it and they did mean to hurt you. Or they did, what was it you said, they did have power over you.”
He glanced at Edwin for a second. “I could even tell her the thing you told me about the ruler. You know she’d shut up then.”
Edwin jolted. “No.”
“Okay. But you know Niko’ll be fine if we answer her questions, and you know Crystal will try if we explain to her properly. She might mess up a couple times, but I’ll just make it clear that that’s off limits, and we’ll get past it, and it’ll be a couple moments of ouch traded for years of not having to hide, yeah? Not having to feel that - that second of brain-blanking terror dropping in the pit of your stomach when you realize you’re about to have to do the thing in front of somebody.”
Edwin looked down at his hands on the railing for a few minutes, while Charles watched the canal. “Alright,” he said, finally.
“Great!” Charles slipped his hand over Edwin’s and squeezed. “You want me to talk to ‘em, first?”
“Yes, please.”
“Okay. I’ll come back and get you in a bit, yeah? And you can tell me what fish you saw.”
Edwin smiled, just a little. “I will keep careful account. Especially if I see your eel.”
“Yeah, say hi to Eely Dan for me,” Charles said with a wide grin, and headed back home.