27. EDDIE

Chapter twenty-seven

EDDIE

W e ordered pizza and lounged around munching on slices of double pepperoni, watching Avatar on Netflix. Max said he had never seen it, and it surprised me.

"You've never seen Avatar before?"

Max shrugged, eyes fixed on the screen.

"Nope. Not my thing."

I found myself intrigued by his response.

"What kind of movies do you like, then?"

"I'm into more arty movies, you know? European cinema, indie film."

Jared snorted. " Film ? Stop trying to be fancy!"

I was surprised by Max's answer.

"Really? I never would have guessed."

Max chuckled and arched his eyebrows.

"Why not? 'Cause rough motorbike guys can't appreciate nice things?"

Jared snorted again, this time at my expense.

"You tell him, Max!"

He winked at him, and Max took a bite of his pizza.

"When I was – you know –" I guessed this meant when he was in prison "– I started a degree in film studies."

I sat up in my seat.

"Really?"

He nodded.

"I didn't get to finish it. My time " – he said it very meaningfully – "was up, and I couldn't get it done after that."

"But where do you get to watch stuff?" I asked, genuinely interested. I loved going to the movies, all kinds. The idea that he was all along hiding his interest in French or Japanese cinema, or whatever it was, only made him more intriguing, here in this small-town kind of place.

"There used to be a small arthouse place downtown, but it closed during the pandemic. Now you can watch things online, even on YouTube. Old movies, at least."

At this, Jared piped up.

"Well, if you lived in New York, you could go to those kinda places every night of the week," he said. "You could join a Meetup group or something and find other people who don't watch Avatar ."

I looked at my nephew.

"What are you on about, Jared?"

He shrugged and looked at me as if I was being dumb.

"Max said he might move to New York."

"I didn't say that," Max shot back. " You said it."

"You could move in with me and Eddie while you look for a place."

"Are you definitely moving, then?" Max asked, and Jared replied,

" Possibly ."

I felt a strange sensation. I didn't hate this idea, but it was way too soon to talk about it. Max lifted his pizza slice back to his mouth and rolled his eyes.

"I am not moving to New York." But then his eyes ran over mine as if waiting for me to say something.

"But if you did," I began, "could you pick up your studies?"

"What?" he said.

Jared was having none of it.

"You heard him, Max."

He was shaking his head.

"It's too long ago. I think I would have to start a new degree from scratch." Then he laughed. "Anyway, I am not moving to New York, am I?"

"That's so cool!" I exclaimed, genuinely impressed. "If you did want to go to film school, why not make it happen? I mean, if you do…"

Max paused.

"I mean, I would like to do something. I would like to try to make a movie. Not like Hollywood, just a movie of my own."

"Oh, my God," Jared cried, "that would be so cool."

I gazed at Max and wondered what might be possible.

Eventually, the pizza was all eaten, and Avatar 's mammoth runtime was over. Max said he should go. Only then did I realize that we had been together pretty much the whole day. If we could spend whole days together and hardly notice the time, couldn't we have lived together?

It was just a thought that passed through my head.