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Thirteen. That’s the number of times Lorraine visits the Colonial Theatre before Ed finally gets the courage to say anything more to her than “enjoy your show” as he checks her ticket at the door. She's there once a week, for thirteen weeks, and from the first time he sees her, he’s sure that he’ll never meet a girl prettier than her.
She’s walking out at the end of the movie, her petite blonde friend by her side, when Ed says, “Did you like it?”
“Pardon?”
“The movie? I - I haven’t seen it yet.”
She smiles, crinkling up her nose and shaking her head in response. “Honestly, I don’t understand why everyone is going so crazy about it.”
He smiles back and leans on his broom, taking a deep breath before he says, “There’s a soda shop next door. I should be done here in about fifteen minutes and -“
Ed hesitates and he’s worried he won’t be able to go on speaking, especially when Lorraine’s friend giggles and tugs at her sweater. Lorraine looks down for a moment and then up at him again to say, “And?”
“I’d like to buy you a Coke, maybe walk you home afterwards.”
Lorraine looks at her friend who is grinning like a fool as she says, “It’s okay, Lorraine. I’ll walk home with Patsy.”
The girl winks at her and walks over to another girl standing near the main exit as Lorraine turns back to Ed. He softly says her name, having just heard it for the first time, “Lorraine.”
She points at his name tag and says, “Ed. Not Eddie or Edward?”
“Just Ed.”
“Well, Ed, I’ll see you next door in fifteen minutes.”
She gives him another smile and then walks out the door, and Ed will later swear he’s never cleaned a movie theatre quicker than he did that night. He heads over to meet her as quickly as possible and she’s patiently waiting, alone at the counter.
Ed sits beside her and puts two fingers up to the man behind the counter. “Two Cokes please.”
“One Coke, one ice cream soda,” Lorraine interjects.
Ed looks at her in surprise, “Ice cream soda? I hadn’t pegged you for a golddigger.”
Lorraine laughs the type of laugh where her head rocks forward and then back up again, and Ed can’t help but laugh with her. When the laughter subsides, and their drinks have arrived, they chat about the basics: their schools, their families and so on.
Lorraine is poking at the little bit of melted ice cream at the bottom of her glass when Ed nervously asks, “What are you doing on Tuesday night?”
“A school night?”
“I work most weekends, and I’d promise to have you home whenever your parents want you home by. I’d just - I’d like to take you out on a real date.”
Lorraine doesn’t react right away and Ed thinks he’s about to be disappointed, but she eventually smiles broadly at him and nods. “I’ll have to ask my parents if it’s okay, but, yeah, I’d like that.”
He breathes a sigh of relief and suddenly his only regret is that it took him thirteen weeks to ask.
***
Their first real date starts with Ed picking her up in his dad’s car, taking her for burgers and then to a free concert in the park. They end up with plenty of time before curfew so he drives her out to Stepney Cemetery and parks right outside the gate.
When he stops the car, Lorraine looks at him with her eyebrows raised in surprise. “This is an odd place to take a girl on a first date.”
“I’m well aware, but - you’ll see why.”
He gets out of the car, and Lorraine not being one to wait around for a man to open a door for her, steps out of the car at the same time. He motions for her to join him and they both end up sitting on the hood of the car next to each other.
She looks around curiously and Ed points for her to look up. “It’s the view.”
Lorraine looks up and it’s the best view of the night sky she’s ever seen. “Not bad at all.”
“The view is always better when you get just a little outside of town.”
“To the cemetery though?”
“I just like the history of the place. It’s been here since 1794 and it’s filled with amazing stories. There are people buried in there that most of us never even heard of. And most of them are more fascinating than anyone we learn about in history class.”
Lorraine nods and while she had expressed her confusion at him taking there, she doesn’t seem to be creeped out by it. Maybe her calm demeanor is what spurs him to blurt out what he says next, “And then there’s the ghosts…”
She doesn’t protest or call him silly, instead she suddenly sits up straighter, her blue eyes going wide. “Ghosts?”
“They say there’s a woman in white who roams the cemetery at night. And sometimes people spot her down the road at Union Cemetery too.”
“A woman in white, huh? Have - have you seen her?”
She seems nervous, but not scared, and Ed says back to her, “If I said yes, would you ever go out with me again?”
Lorraine laughs softly, “I won’t think you’re crazy if that’s what you mean.”
He takes a moment, swallows hard, and then looks back at her.
“It was just once, a year ago or so. Me and a few guys from school were walking past and - the other guys said I was seeing things, but she was right over there,” he points to the right of Lorrane.
“You’re not joking around, are you?”
“Clear as day. I swear. And, it’s not the first time I’ve seen something like that. My house is - ” he pauses, suddenly worried that he’s going to end this relationship before it’s even begun. Something in her eyes compels him to continue, “Haunted. Has been my whole life.”
“Wow.”
“I know. Nobody ever believes me, but - “
Ed’s hand is resting on the hood of the car between them and Lorraine gently places her hand on top of his. “I believe you.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. Because, I see things too.”
He looks at her in disbelief so Lorraine tells him about the first time she saw an angel, and about how she used to talk to the old woman who lived next door years after she had passed away. Lorraine doesn’t just see things, she connects to them, speaks to them and listens. It’s a part of her she keeps hidden away, because most people don’t believe in what they can’t see, even the ones that go to church every Sunday and pray to a God they’ve only read about.
When she finishes, she’s practically breathless and Ed is absolutely awestruck. He doesn’t speak and she suddenly starts to shrink back a bit as she says, “Oh no. I shouldn’t have said anything, but I don’t know - I thought if you believed in ghosts, then you would believe me too, and now I must sound like a real kook.”
“Lorraine. I believe you.”
“Yeah?”
Ed intertwines his fingers with hers and smiles, “Yeah.”
She grins just slightly and leans in to say, “Oh, I probably shouldn't do this but -“
Her lips brush against his, lightly at first, but then Ed leans in to it and kisses her back encouraging her to kiss him with a little more fervor. She breaks it off after a moment, turning her head like she’s a little embarrassed at being so forward, so Ed just holds her hand tighter as they lay back on the car to look at the stars. Not only had the most beautiful girl he had ever met kissed him, but she understood him.
***
They graduate their separate high schools and Ed goes to art school in Hartford, while Lorraine takes secretarial courses and stays behind in Bridgeport. She considers college closer to Ed, but her family just doesn’t have the money. They see each other as much as they can, and when Ed graduates, they get married almost immediately.
Ed starts to sell his paintings up and down New England and Lorraine supplements their income while working in the office of a bank. One sunny afternoon, a couple years into their marriage, they’re bringing his paintings to a store in Middletown and afterwards, they decide to take advantage of the beautiful weather and see the town.
They’re walking past a house just around the corner from the main drag when Lorraine suddenly feels faint and has to lean on a fencepost to keep from falling. Ed immediately puts an arm around her waist and waits until she seems steady to ask, “What happened?”
She looks at him, then at the house and her eyes suddenly get glazed over for a moment. He waits, because he’s seen this before, and eventually she snaps back to reality. “There’s something in this house. Something very - I don’t know if evil is the right word - I’d have to get in there to see, but it’s -“
“Then we’ll get in there and see.”
Lorraine is mostly back to normal as evidenced by the skeptical look she gives Ed. “And how do you propose we do that? Knock knock, hello, I know you don’t know us, but is your house trying to kill you?”
“I’ll figure something out. Maybe I can sketch the house and offer it to the family as a gift. Besides, with your winning personality, you can get us invited inside anywhere.”
She smiles at him but shakes her head a little. Flattery often gets him everywhere, but he truly means it. Lorraine could charm the skin off of a snake if she tried.
“And then what? I can communicate with spirits sometime, but they don’t just leave if you ask them nicely.”
“We figure that out too. We study exorcisms, we talk to the church and we research.”
“Ed -“
“You’ve always wanted to help people, Lorraine.”
She had wanted to be a nurse, but couldn’t afford nursing school, and he knew she hated working at the bank. Ed wasn’t sure how they could make this her full time career yet, but he knew they would figure out a way.
“I don’t know if I can.”
“God gave you this gift for a reason, and he put us together for a reason. The rest, we can figure out.”
Lorraine gives him a brief smile, then wraps her arms around his torso as she lays her head on his chest with a sigh. “If we do this, we do it together. Right?”
Ed embraces her tightly as he answers, “Is there any other way?”
***
Ed and Lorraine take to their new path like it should have been the most obvious thing in the world from the day they met. They get greeted with plenty of skepticism along the way, and their fair share of people calling them frauds. Lorraine seems to let it bounce off of her, but Ed has to learn to keep his temper at bay, always clenching his jaw instead of lashing out. Lorraine is the one who keeps him in line, knowing that anger won’t make them look any more believable, particularly to those who have closed minds.
Judy comes along a couple of years into this new phase of their lives. She’s not exactly an accident, but she’s not exactly planned either. Lorraine’s connection to the other side becomes amplified during and after her pregnancy, and that’s when Ed starts to worry that maybe her gift is harmful to her. Lorraine has other worries though, ones she holds inside but finally voices on the first night they bring Judy home.
She’s rocking her in the chair that Ed built himself when she looks up at her husband standing in the doorway of the nursery. “What if she’s like me?”
“I hope she is.”
“I don’t mean what if she has my eyes or what if her laugh sounds like mine? I meant, what if she can do what I do? I don’t know if I want that for her -“
Ed steps further in to the room and crouches on the floor beside her, looking at Judy as she sleeps peacefully, still unaware of the frightening truths that her parents know. “We can’t control that.”
“I know. It’s not always easy though. When we can help people, it’s worth it, but it’s never easy.”
“Maybe she’ll be normal and grow up thinking her parents are a couple of weirdoes. Or maybe she’ll have your gift and who better to help her deal with it than you?”
Lorraine uses her free hand to reach for Ed’s, entwining her fingers with his. “How do you always know the right thing to say?”
“Maybe that’s my gift.”
She rolls her eyes and laughs softly, “I think you have many gifts.”
Ed already knows that, because he’s looking at the two most important ones.
***
After the Perron family, Amityville, Enfield and every other case, there is always just them. They retreat from the chaos into the quiet comfort of their marriage and it’s always exactly what heals them from the horrors they’ve faced.
A few days after they return from helping the Hodgsons in London, they’re sitting at the breakfast table when Ed looks up from the morning paper and says, “We’re doing alright, aren’t we?”
Lorraine takes a sip of her tea and nods. “Had a close call there, didn’t we?”
“I should have never been in there without you.”
“I know.”
“That probably won’t be the last time I do something stupid.”
“I know.”
He sets the newspaper aside and slides his chair closer to her, leaning over the table. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Believe me, I know.” She says it with a serious tone, but after the words escape her lips, her mouth turns into a slight smile. “The good news is you’re never going to have to find out.”
“Is that so?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
Ed leans in further and kisses her for a good long while. When he finally breaks away from her, she’s smiling at him again and says, “You remember what you promised me when we decided to do this, right?”
“Together?”
Lorraine nodded and repeated his own words from so many years back at him, “Is there any other way?”
He puts his hands to her face and pulls her in for another kiss. Enfield wouldn’t be their last close call, but it was, undoubtedly, a stark reminder of why they were better together.