I Am The Messenger

Ed visits Edgar Street to make sure that the man took his threats to heart and never returned home. One night, Ed comes home from playing cards with his friends and finds two men wearing balaclavas in his kitchen. The hit men, Daryl and Keith, knock him out and take the gun. They don’t know who hired them, but they’re supposed to tell Ed that “so far [he’s] doing well” (110). Before they leave, they beat Ed unconscious again and drop an envelope on his back.

The envelope contains another playing card and a letter telling Ed, “[W]e’re all quite pleased with your progress” (112). The mysterious writer commends him for the way he resolved the Edgar Street situation, informs him that the man moved to a mining town, and emphasizes that Ed’s life depends on his continued delivery of the messages. Instead of a list of addresses, the ace of clubs bears the message: “Say a prayer at the stones of home” (113). Ed has no idea what this means and appeals to the reader for help.

The next morning, Ed goes to Audrey’s place for help. He tells her about the ace of clubs, but their conversation is interrupted when her current boyfriend asks who’s at the door. Audrey answers that it’s “just Ed” (115). This disheartening response leads Ed to retreat. Audrey goes to Ed’s house later that morning, and he tells her all about Milla, Sophie, and the man he banished from Edgar Street. Aloud, Ed wishes that someone else had been chosen to deliver the messages and that he was with Audrey instead of her boyfriend. Audrey tells Ed that he’s her best friend, and Ed thinks, “You can kill a man with those words” (120).

Ed drives a sex worker to an appointment in Sydney. She gives Ed her real name, Alice, and tells him not to worry so much. Ed daydreams about sleeping with Alice and nearly runs a red light. He startles out of his fantasy and returns to the two main dilemmas of his messy reality, “the Ace of Clubs and Audrey” (123).

Ed embraces his role as messenger once again and reminds himself that he “survived everything [he’s] had to so far” (124). He begins his search for the stones of home, but he has no idea where to look. As he and Marv train for the Annual Sledge Game, Marv mentions Suzanne Boyd, his girlfriend who suddenly disappeared three years ago. Ed wonders if his best friend still loves her and asks himself, “How well do we really let ourselves know each other?” (126).

As the days pass, Ed searches books for some clue about the second card. When he visits Edgar Street, the man is still gone, and Angelina and her mother look happy. He spends an evening reading to Milla and watches Sophie race barefoot. Early one morning, Ed picks up a man who orders him to drive to the river near Ed’s childhood home. Realizing that this is a clue, he complies. When the man runs off without paying his fare, Ed chases after him before collapsing in exhaustion. The sound of running water reminds Ed of the large stones where he used to fish with his younger brother, Tommy. He finds three names carved into one of the rocks, Thomas O’Reilly, Angie Carusso, and Gavin Rose.

Ed and Tommy kept their fishing spot in the river a secret. He briefly considers the possibility that his brother sent the cards but soon rules it out. Ed finds two T. O’Reilly’s in the phonebook and visits the first address, an uptown home. Tony O’Reilly answers the door and explains that Thomas is his brother and a priest. He asks Ed to tell Thomas that “greed hasn’t swallowed [him] up yet” (135). Thomas O’Reilly’s neighborhood on Henry Street is “a place of broken roof tiles, broken windows, and broken people” (137). As he nears the priest’s home, three large men approach him, and he hurries away.

Audrey visits Ed, and the two move on from the awkwardness of their last interaction at her place. He tells her about the three names he found carved into a river stone and observes that whoever is behind all of this knows him better than anyone, even himself. Ed returns to Henry Street, and Father O’Reilly invites him into his dingy home. Ed is surprised by the priest’s down-to-earth personality and his swearing. Father O’Reilly explains that his church is sparsely attended and on the edge of town, so he chooses to live where people need his help. Ed admits that he doesn’t know what he’s meant to do, and the priest encourages him to have patience and faith. That Sunday, Ed attends Father O’Reilly’s service with Audrey, Marv, and Ritchie. Only a dozen other people are present, and Ed decides that he’s meant to help the priest by filling up his church.

Ed realizes that the best way to gather a crowd is to offer free beer. He and Marv spray paint a message onto Main Street, inviting everyone to St. Michael’s that Sunday for “MEET A PRIEST DAY” (154). Graffiti complete, he and his best friend race off into the night. Ed wishes that the moment would last so he could “run and laugh and feel like this forever” (155). Ed invites Sophie, Milla, and Father O’Reilly’s estranged brother, Tony, and they all come. The church is so packed that Ed stands with the crowd at the back. The service is full of music, laughter, and applause. At the end, Father O’Reilly gives thanks for the crowd’s presence and for his brother and Ed. Ed hasn’t prayed in years, but he asks God to watch over his friends and family and to help him deliver his messages. After the service, the crowd gathers outside for free food and drinks, karaoke, and dancing. From a distance, Ed sees Thomas and Tony reconcile.

That night, Father O’Reilly visits Ed’s house. The priest is so overwhelmed with gratitude that he struggles to speak. Ed’s next visitors are police officers with cleaning supplies. Once again, Ed finds himself on Main Street in the middle of the night. As he scrubs away the spray paint, he asks God, “Why me?” and thinks, “It’s good to be alive” (165).

The second name on the stone is Angie Carusso, a woman with three children who “looks to have been one of those typical teenage mothers in this town” (166). Every Thursday, she brings her children to the park and buys them each an ice cream cone. Ed feels saddened as he watches the slow, lopsided way Angie walks so that her children can keep up with her.

Ed checks in on each of the people he’s already delivered messages to and is relieved to see that they’re all doing well. While Father O’Reilly’s congregation isn’t as large as it was the day of the party, his services are much better attended than they were before the event.

The third name on the stone, Gavin Rose, belongs to a sneering teenager whom Ed deems “a complete bastard” because he shoplifts and bullies younger children (168). Gavin and his older brother, Daniel, fight constantly, and their mother drinks to cope. One night, Daniel beats Gavin up. When Ed asks Gavin what happened, the boy says that he wants to kill his brother. Ed decides that the Rose boys need to be tested.

The next time that Ed sees Angie and her children in the park, Ed buys her an ice cream cone. She’s a single mother, and, although she loves her children, she sometimes wishes that she were child-free. Looking at her, Ed realizes that “nothing belongs to her anymore and she belongs to everything” (173). Angie asks Ed his name and thanks him. He finds the whole experience bittersweet, but his heart lightens when he hears Angie’s daughter promising to share her ice cream with her mother the next week.

One night, the Rose boys have another fight. This time, when Gavin storms outside, Ed beats him until the boy is unable to walk on his own. Then, he calls Daniel from a pay phone and tells him where to find Gavin. As Daniel helps Gavin back to the house, the boys “look like brothers” for the first time (177). Ed hopes that the Rose brothers “understand what they’re doing and what they’re proving” (177), but he recognizes that his job is to deliver messages, not decipher them for the recipients.

Ed returns to the river stone where he found the names. With triumphant pride, he sees that Angie and Father O’Reilly’s names now have check marks by them to indicate that he’s delivered their messages. To his dismay, there is no check mark beside Gavin’s name. A few days later, Daniel, Gavin, and some of their friends corner Ed in an alley and beat him up. As the group of teenagers takes their vengeance, Ed pictures a large check mark “being scratched into the stone next to the name of Gavin Rose” (182). Ed limps home and examines his black eyes and bloodied features, “the face of clubs” (182).