Chapter 112

She is Lila and Harvey’s cousin. Her name is Faith. She designs computer games for a living and looks after people’s pets when they go away. The pets stay in their backyards and Faith visits and feeds them, plays with them or takes them for walks. She took care of a snake last week. One of her computer games just won a major award so she might be able to cut back on the pet business soon, although she enjoys it. She is the sister of the cousin with whom Ethan shared the plate of mini vol-au-vents at Harvey’s funeral, and she wasn’t there because she was overseas at the time and her flight got delayed.

She is funny and interesting. She makes Ethan feel funny and interesting.

They talk about Harvey a lot. Raise a glass to him. Over and over.

When Faith goes to the bar for their third round of drinks, Lila leans forward. “I don’t know if I should tell you this, but Harvey was going to introduce you to Faith at his thirtieth,” she says. “He’d been going on about it for years. He reckoned you two would be a perfect match.”

“He never mentioned her.” Ethan glances back over his shoulder.

“He said he wasn’t going to say a word because that would put you off. He was so excited, said he was a shoo-in for best man.”

“Well,” said Ethan. This is moving fast. “I mean—”

“Oh, sure, sure, let’s see how it goes. Maybe ask her out on a date before we send out the wedding invites.”

“And, um, Lila, doesn’t she live in Tasmania?”

Lila lowers her voice and mutters in a fast, low voice, “Thinkingofmovinghereinthenewyear,” just as Faith arrives back with their drinks.

“Do you think that’s Harvey checking in on us?” Faith nods at the scowling seagull on the railing.

“I think I saw him earlier,” says Ethan.

He is thinking about the day he had his cards read, and Luca was supposedly channeling Harvey and he said Harvey was telling him to have faith. Didn’t he use the word “faith” multiple times?

Another coincidence? How many coincidences before you start to wonder? Or is the whole paranormal industry based entirely on coincidence? He thinks of that long-ago statistics class, when two girls seated together were amazed to find they shared a birthday, and even after the lecturer explained the math of it, they thought it must mean something and became best friends. Maybe they’re still best friends.

“Oh, gosh.” Lila studies the seagull. “That is such a Harvey expression.”

It looks for a moment like she can’t get her breath and Ethan wonders if she is about to cry, but then he realizes she is laughing. She has her brother’s identical silent wheezy laugh. It strikes him as somehow beautiful that Harvey’s wonderful weird laugh is still here in the world. It hasn’t vanished after all, and it might live on for generations in Lila’s children.

Ethan catches Faith’s eye as she watches her cousin fondly.

“Lila, Harvey, and Uncle Tom all laugh the same way, and when the three of them laugh together, it’s wild,” she says. “I mean it was wild.” Her voice cracks and Ethan feels his sinuses block.

“Um, can’t you see your friend is choking? Right in front of you?” A woman walking by in towering stilettos, dressed up in formal wear, perhaps for a black-tie wedding at the Opera House, stops to bang her palm against Lila’s back.

The seagull jumps about excitedly.

“No, no, it’s okay, she’s just choking,” says Ethan, meaning to say, she’s just laughing, and then he can’t get the correct word out. “No! I mean, I meant, I mean—”

“Well, I know she’s choking!” says the woman.

Now Lila, Faith, and Ethan are all laugh-sobbing, their faces crumple-wrinkled like old peaches as they rock with laughter and grief. They’re a hot mess.

“They’re drunk. ” The woman’s friend drags her away.

“Ah, Ethan,” says Faith as they are finally regaining their composure. She is looking over her shoulder. “Do you know that guy? Because he looks kind of…mad with you.”