a really good therapist, and he's got you to take care of him. And Maria, too, who means well even if she's-” She stopped, shook her head, got herself back on track. “Anyway, the point is he's going to be fine, you know he is, whether he sees me or not. Because you're doing the right things for him. So it's not fair to make me feel bad about it. I love the little guy.” She rubbed Zack's back. “I think he's great. And I would have kept working with him, only it was too hard.”
“Why do you keep saying that?” Jason asked. “That it was too hard? What was so fucking hard about it?”
“You know,” she said. “High school and-”
“You recognized me the first day we came in,” Jason said. “And you started working with Zack anyway. And kept working with him for a while. So that's not it. That's not what made it so hard.”
“It was part of it,” Sari said. She brushed her fingers through Zack's curls, looking down so she wouldn't have to meet Jason's eyes. “And then you and I started-I don't know what we started doing. But I didn't feel right about it. I kept trying to stop-”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
“But I couldn't.” No matter how hard she swallowed, the swelling in her throat wouldn't go down. She was grateful at least that they were alone in Ellen's office, not in one of the public areas. “It was all too much. Thinking about Charlie and seeing you all the time and knowing that Zack needed my help-I just couldn't take it anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” Jason said after a moment. “I probably shouldn't have been so hard on you the other day. But I hate it when Zack cries like that. I can't stand it. And then seeing you sitting there, not caring, filling out your little forms like it had nothing to do with you at all-” His voice, Sari noticed, was as shaky as hers. “I told you, I used to watch you two together and I thought he meant something to you. And that meant something to me.”
“He did,” Sari said. “He
“That's exactly what Denise said that night you came to dinner. And you said she was wrong.”
“I’m not Zack's mother,” she said. “I’m Charlie's sister. And that makes all of this… impossible.” There was a silence and then she sighed and said, “Okay. That's it.” She gently removed Zack's hands from her leg. “Time to go, sweetheart.”
“Hold on,” Jason said. “Just hold on a second. It's my turn to say something.”
“I think it's been-”
“I said hold on.”
Zack suddenly let go of her leg and slid down onto the floor as if he had become too bored with standing to do it any longer. He flopped onto his back and looked up at the ceiling.
Jason said, “I’ve been thinking. Since we last talked. And if I was ever mean to your brother back in high school-and maybe I was-God knows it's possible, even if I don't remember it-if I was, I’m sorry. Deeply and horribly and painfully sorry. If I could go back now and help him out, I would.”
“I know,” she said. “I know you would. But only because of him.” She gestured down at Zack.
“What do you mean?” Jason said.
“If Zack hadn't been born-if you'd had the perfect golden child you thought you'd have-you'd probably still be walking around, acting like an asshole, thinking you were better than everyone else-maybe even still being mean to anyone who was different, maybe even teaching Zack to be mean to the other kids at school-”
“Whoa,” he said. “I would never have taught my kid to be mean… But say it's true that if things had been different, I’d have been different-doesn't the same go for you? If Charlie hadn't been born, do you really think you'd have been such a saint your whole life?”
“I never said I was a saint.”
“Pretty much-all that talk about how you were never mean to anyone in high school…” He ran his hand through his hair. Some of it stayed sticking up, and Sari had to fight the urge to reach up and smooth it down. “Of course having Zack changed me. I don't think I was ever really as bad as you seem to think I was, but either way, I’m a more decent human being now and I’ll freely admit it. Does it matter why? You had a brother a couple of decades before I had Zack, so maybe you had an advantage there. But you and I ended up in the same place. And for the same reason.”
“I would never have been mean to a kid with special needs. Even if Charlie hadn't been my brother.”
“How can you be sure of that?”
“I just know.”
“Whoever you think I was-whatever you think I was-back in high school, I’m not that guy now,” Jason said. “I’m not sure I ever was him, but I’m definitely not him now.”
“It doesn't matter,” she said. “You can't just say ‘I’m good now’ and have everything suddenly be forgotten.”
“Why not?” Jason rubbed his temple savagely. “Why are you fighting this so hard, Sari? Why do I have to be evil through and through? Why can't I have changed? Why do you
“I don't.” She sagged back against the wall, suddenly exhausted. “At least… I don't think I do.”
“Then why can't you give me a break?”
It was so hard to explain. “I’ve hated everyone from high school for so long. I’ve gone to sleep thinking about how much I hated you all for years now. I don't think I could even go to sleep without thinking about all that.” She gave a little painful smile. “It's like my security blanket.”
“You need to give it up.”
“Charlie's been so screwed over,” Sari said. “In every way. He never had a chance, Jason. You don't know what it's like. Zack will be fine. Charlie won't.”
“You can't blame the kids from high school for that.”
“If they'd been kinder to him-”
“It would have been better,” he said. “But it wouldn't have cured his autism. There has to be more to the story than that.”
“Maybe,” she said. “I mean, of course. But-”
“But what? Why do you have to keep hating me?”
“Because it's easier than-” Than what? She turned away from him, pressing herself against the wall, trying to think, trying to find something coherent to say.
It was all such a mess, everything to do with Charlie. First there was her mother's craziness and her father's indifference, and then the cruelty of the kids at school… and then when all that was behind her, she had thought I’ll learn how to make everything better for him, but nothing she learned had ever made any difference-and the truth was she hadn't helped him at all.
She hadn't helped him at all.
God, it hurt to think that. She had spent the last six years of her life studying how to help Charlie, but he was still stuck at home watching TV and eating too much, isolated from the real world. For all her schooling and good intentions, she hadn't done a thing for Charlie. Her mother always got in her way when she tried to change things, and eventually she had given up even trying.
It was too awful to think about-all that failure, all that giving up. It was so much easier to blame everyone else-her mother for not getting it, her father for not caring, her sister for running away, everyone at school for laughing at him-
But what had she ever done to make Charlie's life better? Who had hurt him more in the end-some strangers who made fun of him or the sister he loved who used to hit him and scream at him because he couldn't change? What good had any of her promises or hopes or anger actually done him?
“Oh, shit,” Sari said. She hid her face in her hands, her body crouched against the wall. “I can't do this.”
“Do what?”
Through her fingers, she said, “I can't just suddenly change the way I’ve been thinking about things.”
“Why not?” Jason was suddenly standing very close to her. “Didn't you tell me the brain is very good at reshaping itself? Ever hear of a little thing called neural plasticity?”
Sari let her hands drop to her sides. “If you tell me to lay down some new neural pathways, I swear I’ll-”
“You'll what?” Jason said.
“I don't know,” she said and wouldn't look at him. “It's just not that easy.”
