ED, EDD n EDDY IS A CREATION BY DANNY ANTONUCCI

Crawson is the first to reach the place. He parks the car in the outskirts and goes to the agreed place taking a walk. His short, greasy and reddish hair, his badly-shaven stone face, his unibrow and his messy and dirty clothes make him look like someone who makes ladies grab their purses tightly when passing by, or who has escaped from a "place for special people". That's what those who don't know him think, those who don't link him to Edward Crawson, the name on the credits of some blockbusters, on his own Youtube channel and the list of winners of the last Canada Screen Awards for the best make up for his magnific monster in the movie In the depths. There, back in the neighborhood, however, they know his face very well and that's why everyone he comes across are glad to see him. When the award was made public, many quickly claimed with pride that good old Ed was born and raised in Peach Creek, they had seen him grow up, they knew his family and were very good friends of his, and that they had always known, in spite of him not getting past Middle School, that all those doodles he drew in class would take him far. He stops to say hello to Jimmy's mom when he sees her taking the garbage out. She congratulates him for the award and the child on the way, when he tells her about it, and tells him that Jimmy has been sent by his bosses to Japan to make a report on some architectonic tendency. That reminds Crawson of a friend of his who also travels a lot for work. He hopes he could finally come, because there is no way to know from his message if the answer is yes or no.

But yes, Professor Vincent could make it. Not that he could make room in his schedule full of seminars, symposiums, classes and courses, it is actually his schedule which accomodates to that unmovable block. After spending days at the campus of Toronto, going back to the old peaceful streets of his small town feels like entering another dimension. It's nothing bad, or terrific: it makes him feel relaxed. His wife says he works too much, and she may be right. He has written an awful bunch of books and they must be good, because they are part of the basic bibliography of quite a few universities. That could have made anyone conceit but not him. Going back to the neighborhood brings him back to the time when he was a maladjusted freak, reminds him of where he comes from. His academic achievements don't impress his former neighbors. They always knew he was a nerd. Also, they don't know a word about Physics to judge if his books are good or not. No one there calls him Professor nor Doctor, unless it's to mock him. Double D will always be Double D, as many professorships and diplomas he's got. He encounters no one except memories, which make him smile showing a gap in his front teeth. That's where we crushed with the bike, there, where we started that party which ended so wrong, that's the spot where we built a city with cardboard boxes...

McAulley curses under his breath, seeing he's going late. The Mrs. made him go to the groceries; it seems she couldn't go herself, she was too busy doing her nails...He's thankful he's got these kind of moments to get rid of her, honestly. He's going to explode one of these days, with her, the kid, who wants one of those phones which fold, and the inspectors who believe he's not playing entirely fair with his used-car business...Oh, well, he forces himself to forget about all of them, because he's supposed to have fun today, though he will surely end up telling his friends about it, they always know the comforting word for him or simply help him by listening to him while he lets it all out. He finds Kevin on the way, he has recently gotten his parents' house after they retired in the beach. Stop and have some beers, man. Great McAulley! With that time is money thing, we never see you, dude. No, it's just that I've got something important to do; I owe you, he replied. And he's honest about it. Great McAulley may have his fine print, but Eddy knows how to keep the promises he makes to his friend. Because it may be possible that Kevin hadn't been a friend for a long time, but now he's one of the best. Just not as much as...

There he spots one. Ed. He waves an arm, calling him. Ed runs to him like a doggy upon seeing the owner is back home. Darn it, he almost breaks his back with the hug he gives him. I see you're swell, you brute, I'm surprised you haven't crushed your missus, being so tiny. Not that Eddy grew much; it seems Ed grew up and on both sides for him.

Double D! Now it's his turn to suffer Ed's squeeze. That will leave a mark, but the professor giggles. As if we didn't see one another once a month! His hug with Eddy is much more restrained but not less affectionate. What's up, Eddy? How are Lee and Shauna? Sick and tired. They're shopping all day long, they might think I'm a bank; what a sucker I was, letting her nab me; enjoy, Double D, while your kid's still small, and you, Ed, pray what's coming's not a girl. His friends laugh. Eddy's exaggerating.

Ed slaps Double D with his latest book, wants him to sign it. He's now interested in Quantum Mechanics and he didn't know? He knows that he's not but buys all of his books anyway, because they got his name on the cover. He reads them to his kids in bed. They don't understand a thing and neither does he, but there's no better way to make them fall asleep. Double D has never denied him anything, so he writes him a dedicatory. He never tells him what he has already told Eddy in private, that he has already bought a gift for his fourth kid, of which he will be godfather. Eddy tells Ed in the meanwhile that his monster was the best thing in the movie. The parts in which he wasn't around were boring as hell. He thinks the same. Had they let him write the script, he would have added a lot more blood, screams and chases in narrow places! Oh, well, what the boss says goes. He's happy he was given creative freedom to design the creature. He drank a two-liter bottle of soda to make the roar.

Oh, but why are they chatting in there? Eddy got some beers, since Lee made him go to the store, and they are drinking them at the old park they used to spend the afternoons in, doing everything and not good at all.

They join their families in the summer, even though they don't see a special connection among their wives (what can the editor of a Sci-Fi magazine, a doctor in Mathematics and Lee Kanker, housewife and ex-convict talk about?), and less among their children (Shauna, who is twelve years old now and starts wanting to be left alone, Harriet, as smart and shy as her father used to be, and Max, Jamie and Pepper, who should be kept on a leash), but once a month, no matter what, they go back to the old cul-de-sac and get up to date, talk about their issues, laugh, drink, eat, like in those childhood days, the three of them alone.

THE END