Back to Dr. Bill

 

“Andrew and Savannah, two of my most frustrating – and frustrated – parents, are back.” 

“When we last spoke,” Dr. Bill began, “you were having issues with your daughter, Sage, who was having issues with adjusting to a new town and dealing with her brothers being sent off to boot camp.  How’s she doing now?”

“She’s doing great,” I replied.  “She’s on the honor roll, she rides horses, she trains her dog, she helps out with the new baby –”

“Since we last spoke, the two of you had your fourth child.”

“Yes.  Skylar Rose.”

“How is life with the new baby?”

“It’s – a challenge, to say the least.”

“I cannot believe the two of you.”

“What?”

Dr. Bill looked at us quizzically.  “The two of you brought a fourth child into this highly toxic situation.”

“What do you mean, Dr. Bill?”

“Savannah, this ain’t my first rodeo.  I’ve been around families like yours for a long time.  I’ve seen mothers like you for thirty years.  They look different, they talk different, they have different names, but I’ve seen you for thirty years.” 

“Now, the two of you are back, not just with your daughter, the one you initially contacted me about, who from your own report is doing reasonably well now, but you have with you one of your older sons, back from Fort Starch military academy.”

I nodded.  “I’m worried about him.”

“You know, Savannah, I’ve obtained your sons’ juvenile records from the Sunset Valley city hall.  Their criminal histories are extensive, and, you know, I absolutely see why they were remanded to Fort Starch.  Imsety -- breaking and entering, stealing tests from the classroom, stealing a computer, defacing school property, throwing eggs at someone's house, and this, this is the big one, he threw a party while the two of you were gone."

Andy piped in, "We were at a couple's retreat at the time."
"The cops came to that party, along with the paparazzi, didn't they?" asked Dr. Bill.
"When we came back, the house was a shambles, people all around,” I recalled.  “I walked in and the place reeked of alcohol.  I found my sons passed out drunk on the floor, it was awful.  Then the worst part was that the paps took a picture of my sons and it got out –"

"You blame him, Imsety, for influencing your other son, AJ, the one who’s here with you.  Who, by the way, has his own laundry list, and in some ways, his is even more egregious than his brother's.  Drinking, fighting at school, bullying -- one boy in particular, and you know I have zero tolerance for bullying because I know what scars it could leave – and then he was photographed drinking in a nightclub."
"That tore me up as much as anything, honestly.  The fact that he would show such blatant disregard for the rules –"

“You were concerned about your family’s reputation, right?”

I nodded my head in reluctant agreement.

“What was the last straw?”

“I think it was the picture of him sitting in a nightclub.  Andrew and I were just, you know, done at that point.  We couldn’t take anymore.”

A few minutes later, Dr. Bill escorted Andy and I out of the room and wanted to speak to AJ, alone.  I could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation.

“You’re AJ, correct?  How are you, son?  Have a seat.”

“I’m not sitting down!”

“Calm down, boy.”  After a few minutes they finally got him to settle down. 

“So, you like computers?  Video games?”

“Computers, mostly.  When I was at Fort Starch I took this computer programming course.”

“Is that something you’d like to pursue?”

I didn’t hear whether he said yes or no to that.

A few moments later I was back.

“Savannah, I had a lengthy chat with your son.  Like I told you and Andrew before, with Sage, y’all make gorgeous kids.  Your son is handsome, he’s, I think, incredibly bright – but he’s very troubled.  Do you agree that he’s troubled?”

“Absolutely.”

“That’s a lost young man, right there.  He’s going through life rudderless.  He has absolutely no direction whatsoever.  He’s actually, let me see how I can put this, he’s a geek who is pretending to be a tough guy.”

“What do you mean?”

“He spoke at length to me about his passion for computers and chess, and how he hid that at his old school to prevent from being bullied.  Now, that doesn’t excuse his actions in turn bullying someone else, but at least it goes a way toward some kind of explanation for his behavior.  You didn’t know this, Savannah, but he joined the chess club at Fort Starch.  He talked about his interest in aerospace technology and astronomy.  You mentioned that he is fluent in Arabic because of his brothers and his Egyptian nanny, and he talked about perhaps going to Egypt one day and going exploring in tombs.”

“I was going over his Fort Starch record, and it was revealed that he failed a basic vision test.  Savannah, your son is severely nearsighted.”

“Oh my Watcher!”  I was shocked, and in a way, I was also devastated.  He inherited his nearsightedness from me.  I had hoped he would inherit Andy’s 20/20 perfect vision, but it was not to be. 

“He needs glasses or some kind of corrective vision procedure, whether it’s surgery or it’s contacts or something else.  And I’m sure that’s part of the reason why he struggled so much in school.  He couldn’t see the chalkboard, and he was too pig-headed and too stubborn to ask for help.”

My son is more like me than I could have possibly imagined.  And in some ways that’s not a good thing.