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(and take your medicine!)
(makes human monsters.)
With a gasp that echoed in his own head he jerked himself out of the darkness. Hands were on him and at first he shrank back, thinking that the dark thing in the Overlook of Tony's world had somehow followed him back into the world of real things-and then Dr. Edmonds was saying: “You're all right, Da
Da
When the reaction began to subside, Edmonds asked, “You said something about monsters, Da
“This inhuman place,” he said gutturally. “Tony told me… this inhuman place… makes… makes…” He shook his head. “Can't remember.”
“Try!”
“I can't.”
“Did Tony come?”
“Yes.”
“What did he show you?”
“Dark. Pounding. I don't remember.”
“Where were you?”
“Leave me alone! I don't remember! Leave me alone!” He began to sob helplessly in fear and frustration. It was all gone, dissolved into a sticky mess like a wet bundle of paper, the memory unreadable.
Edmonds went to the water cooler and got him a paper cup of water. Da
“Better?”
“Yes.”
“Da
“My mommy,” Da
“Mothers always are, guy.”
“No… she had a sister that died when she was a little girl. Aileen. She was thinking about how Aileen got hit by a car and that made her worried about me. I don't remember anything else.”
Edmonds was looking at him sharply. “Just now she was thinking that? Out in the waiting room?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Da
“I don't know,” Da
“The what?”
Da
“Are you going to throw up?”
“No, sir. I just want to go see my mommy and daddy.”
“Okay, Dan.” Edmonds stood up. “You go on out and see them for a minute, then send them in so I can talk to them. Okay?','
“Yes, sir.”
“There are books out there to look at. You like books, don't you?”
“Yes, sir,” Da
“You're a good boy, Da
Da
“I can't find a thing wrong with him,” Dr. Edmonds said to the Torrances. “Not physically. Mentally, he's bright and rather too imaginative. It happens. Children have to grow into their imaginations like a pair of oversized shoes. Da
“I don't believe in them,” Jack said. “They straight-jacket the expectations of both parents and teachers.”
Dr. Edmonds nodded. “That may be. But if you did test him, I think you'd find he's right off the scale for his age group. His verbal ability, for a boy who is five going on six, is amazing.”
“We don't talk down to him,” Jack said with a trace of pride.
“I doubt if you've ever had to in order to make yourself understood.” Edmonds paused, fiddling with a pen. “He went into a trance while I was with him. At my request. Exactly as you described him in the bathroom last night. All his muscles went lax, his body slumped, his eyeballs rotated outward. Textbook autohypnosis. I was amazed. I still am.”
The Torrances sat forward. “What happened?” Wendy asked tensely, and Edmonds carefully related Da
“Tony again,” Jack said.
“What does it mean?” Wendy asked. “Have you any idea?”
“A few. You might not like them.”
“Go ahead anyway,” Jack told him.
“From what Da
“You think moving has upset Da
“It may have, if the move took place under traumatic circumstances,” Edmonds said. “Did it?”
Wendy and Jack exchanged a glance.
“I was teaching at a prep school,” Jack said slowly. “I lost my job.”
“I see,” Edmonds said. He put the pen he bad been playing with firmly back in its holder. “There's more here, I'm afraid. It may be painful to you. Your son seems to believe you two have seriously contemplated divorce. He spoke of it in an offhand way, but only because he believes you are no longer considering it.”
Jack's mouth dropped open, and Wendy recoiled as if slapped. The blood drained from her face.
“We never even discussed it!” she said. “Not in front of him, not even in front of each other! We-”
“I think it's best if you understand everything, Doctor,” Jack said. “Shortly after Da
“I see,” Edmonds said neutrally. “I knew the arm had been broken, of course. It was set well.” He pushed back from his desk a little and crossed his legs. “If I may be frank, it's obvious that he's been in no way abused since then. Other than the stings, there's nothing on him but the normal bruises and scabs that any kid has in abundance.”
“Of course not,” Wendy said hotly. “Jack didn't mean-”
“No, Wendy,” Jack said. “I meant to do it. I guess someplace inside I really did mean to do that to him. Or something even worse.” He looked back at Edmonds again. “You know something, Doctor? This is the first time the word divorce has been mentioned between us. And alcoholism. And child-beating. Three firsts in five minutes.”
“That may be at the root of the problem,” Edmonds said. “I am not a psychiatrist. If you want Da
Jack was studying his hands. Wendy took one of them and squeezed it.
“But he sensed the things that were wrong. Chief among them from his point of view was not the broken arm but the broken-or breaking-link between you two. He mentioned divorce to me, but not the broken arm. When my nurse mentioned the set to him, he simply shrugged if off. It was no pressure thing. `It happened a long time ago' is what I think he said.”