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“All of him's the real Zack,” Sari said. “We're just encouraging him to talk and be social. But he's all Zack all the time.”
“Yeah, of course,” Jason said. He was wearing jeans and a plain white T-shirt that hung straight down from his broad shoulders. He looked like a jock. He'd look like a jock in footsie pajamas.
He was still talking. Sari made herself focus. “I’ve always loved him, but now it feels like he's turning into a friend. It's incredible. He actually asked me for juice today. I couldn't believe it. He came right up to me and said, ‘Joo, joo.’”
“Maybe he just thought you looked a little Semitic,” Sari said.
He laughed and then said, “It's weird that you're fu
“I’m amazed you remember me at all,” Sari said. “I didn't hang around with your crowd much.”
“My crowd?” he repeated. “I didn't have a crowd.”
“Sure you did.”
“I had a few friends. Not that many.”
“You had an entourage” Sari said. “Which was appropriate, what with you being the king and all.”
“Was I voted king?” he said. “Fu
“People don't vote you king,” Sari said. “You're born to it.” He shook his head. “Not me. I was just trying to survive, like everyone else.”
It blew her mind that he could say that, that he could act like his high school experience was anything like hers, like he hadn't ruled the place and dealt out favors and cruelties with equal generosity.
IV
Di
It started off fine. Kathleen was late, of course, but the girls knew that Kathleen never paid much attention to time, so they went ahead and ordered drinks without her. For a while, they drank and chatted about restaurants and movies, and James seemed fairly relaxed for once, his arm draped around Lucy's shoulders, his long legs stretched out under the booth they shared.
Then James asked Sari what she did for a living and she told him.
He was already shaking his head before she had finished speaking. “I know you don't want to hear this,” he said, “but it just kills me when I hear about these autism clinics popping up everywhere. Like they're going to make a difference.”
“Excuse me?” Sari said, blinking.
“How many kids do you see in a day?”
“Me, personally, or at the clinic?”
“At the clinic.”
“Roughly thirty, I guess. Some evaluations, but mostly ongoing therapy.”
“Which means most of the kids are repeat visitors, right? So it's not like you're seeing thirty different kids every day.”
“Yeah, right,” she said. “So?”
He was shaking his head again. “It's a waste, that's all. A drop in the ocean. It's like a doctor putting calamine lotion on one kid with chicken pox instead of vaccinating all the kids in his practice.”
Sari shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “We help every kid who comes through our clinic.”
“So you patch up a few kids,” he said with a shrug. “At a huge expense, right? Meanwhile, that money-and intelligent clinicians like you-could be put to far better use pursuing scientific solutions to the problem.” He picked up his beer glass with his free hand, the one that wasn't around Lucy's shoulders. “Autism isn't going to go away because some kids learn to say a word or two. We've got to find a real biomedical solution to the problem. The only way to do that is to take all the money we've got and put it directly into reputable scientific research.” He took a sip and put his glass back down.
“I’d be thrilled if someone found a biomedical solution,” Sari said. “But no one's come knocking on our door with one yet. Behavioral interventions are all we've got that work-”
“One kid at a time,” James said. “And each kid requires- what?-hundreds of hours of one-on-one intervention, right? Come on, Sari, it's a waste. All those man-hours, all that money… Put them to use, I say. Stop playing around with one or two kids and set your sights higher.”
“You want to come to the clinic and tell our parents that?” Sari said. Her cheeks had turned red. “You want to come tell them we're closing down and not helping their kids anymore because maybe someone someday will find a better solution? ‘Sorry, folks, your kids aren't going to learn to talk but, hey, if we find a magic pill, we'll be sure to call you’? Like that?”
“Whoa, there,” James said, removing his arm from Lucy's shoulder so he could put up both hands in surrender. “Calm down, buddy. I’m on your side. It's just that I come from a hard science background-I deal in research and real solutions.”
“Our approach is completely research-based,” Sari said. “This is science, too. Behavior mod can change people's brains at the chemical level.”
“Not as fast as chemicals can,” James said. “But let's not argue. It's great that you want to help kids. Really.” He slid out of the booth and stood up. “Excuse me, guys-got to make a quick trip to the men's room. I’ll be right back.” He left.
The girls sipped their drinks and didn't meet each other's eyes. “I’m sorry,” Lucy said after a moment. “I didn't know he'd-”
Sari waved her hand. “Don't worry about it. A lot of people feel that way.”
There was a flurry and a blur and suddenly Kathleen was sitting next to Sari. “Sorry I’m late! Where's James?”
“Men's room,” Lucy said.
“I miss anything?”
“Yeah,” Lucy said. “James was a jerk and now Sari hates him.”
Sari rolled her eyes. “I don't hate him.”
“Why does she hate him?” Kathleen asked. She was wearing a red handkerchief top and tight jeans and looked pretty spectacular, the way Kathleen always did when she got out of her sweats and made an effort to dress up.
“I don't hate him,” Sari said again. “We had a polite disagreement about something.”
“Whatever,” Kathleen said. She put her fingertips to her neck. “My throats killing me. It's been hurting all day.”
“You should take some vitamin C,” Sari said.
“You know, there's no actual scientific evidence that that works,” Lucy said.
“Don't say that. Haven't you heard of the placebo effect? Which you've just ruined for me?”
“I’ll try anything right now,” Kathleen said. “I so don't want to get sick. There's lots of vitamin C in orange juice, right?” She signaled to a waiter and ordered a screwdriver when he came over.
James came back to the table a minute later. For the rest of the meal, they stayed away from the subject of autism clinics, and James went out of his way to be charming and friendly. But no matter how pleasantly Sari smiled, Lucy knew she had to be pissed off that James had called the career she loved a waste of time.
James and Lucy left soon after ten-he was worn out from all the traveling and lecturing he'd been doing-but Kathleen and Sari lingered over slices of flourless chocolate cake.
“Lucy's lucky,” Kathleen said. “She's going home to have sex.
“Remind me what that is again,” Sari said. “Sort of like this chocolate cake, only better. You shouldn't go so long between guys, Sar.”
“It's not like I want to.”
“No, but you don't actively go after them, either. Let's go to a bar and I’ll show you how to pick someone up. Just for practice.”
“I don't do that,” Sari said.
“But you should.”
“I don't know how to go after guys, anyway,” Sari said. “They didn't teach that where I went to school.”
Kathleen squished a crumb of chocolate cake with her index finger then licked it off. “You just find a cute guy and listen to him talk like he's interesting-whether he is or not-and smile a lot and touch his arm and make it clear that you're available. The rest just kind of follows.”