Page 124 of Septembers

“He cuts off his penis in some kind of retaliation against her ghost, who haunts their garden and makes their vegetables grow with maggots in them.”

“Ah. Well.” There was absolutely no way he would ever watch that movie. “Could be a lazy Sunday afternoon watch.”

“Promise me.”

“Fine. I’ll watch the penis-magot movie.”

“That you’ll never die, Theo.” His voice had an intensity Theo hadn’t realized the conversation warranted. “You can live without me; I can’t live without you.”

Theo barked with laughter. “In what world is that true? I could barely handle you going seven subway stops away for a month, and you think I can live without you?”

“Then let’s die together, same day, same time, eighty years from now.”

“Sure, you jump, I jump, Jack.” He thought about it, trying to do math with his wine-logged brain. “Eighty years would make us one hundred and seven.”

“Yeah. You should probably stop eating sugar.”

He snorted. Listened to Dae’s breathing. Wondered what he was wearing. Missed him so much his stomach hurt. “Dae?”

“Hmmmm?”

“Why didn’t you video call?”

He didn’t answer right away. “I don’t know. I wanted to hear you.”

“I don’t get it, but I get it.” He could hear him in a video, but this seemed more intimate: their voices reaching out, their imaginations filling in the rest…

Dae took a long breath. “In the movie, the character digs up the garden, hoping her ghost will scold him. He wanted to hear her voice again. I guess I wanted to hear yours. No distractions.”

“Are you really okay?”

“Hmmhmm.”

“So does it work?”

“Yes and no. She doesn’t speak, but it turns out she ruined the vegetables because there was lead poisoning the soil. She was trying to save him.”

“That’s…nice?”

A soft chuckle that warmed Theo’s blood. “I’m not selling it very well.”

“If you want me to watch it, I will.”

“That’s okay.” A rustling came through the receiver, and Theo knew he was burrowing under the covers. “Theo?”

“I’m here.”

“I miss you.”

“Which was the point.”

He could hear his smile in his voice. “Which was the point.”

Theo must’ve been all swoony when he came out of the bedroom, because the three of them looked at him with varying reactions: knowing, grinning, and in Jordan’s case, misty-eyed melancholy.

“How’s Dae?”

“Miserable without me, as it should be.”