Fragile Lives by Jane A. Adams

Author:Jane A. Adams [Margaret Duffy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2015-03-24T04:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

At nine o’clock it was fully dark but the night was clear and filled with stars. Simeon sat in the attic window looking out to sea. He loved this room; it had been turned into a playroom for the two boys when they had still been very small, long before Simeon’s accident. It had been left just as it was, the decor and contents added to through the years as their interest waxed and waned and changed. Andrew had begun to use it for his homework and then his writing projects while, for a long time, Simeon still played with their toys and childhood games.

Andrew had once commented that sometimes, as he climbed the stairs, he felt that if he trod silently and carefully enough and then opened the door really fast, he might see the tiny Andrew and slightly bigger Simeon playing as they used to play. Might almost catch sight of the way they had been before …

Andrew didn’t know that Simeon had heard him say that. Simeon sort of understood that Andrew would never say something like that to him for fear of hurting his feelings or causing upset, but something in the strange way that Simeon’s brain now worked – connecting one complex notion, unable to deal with a different simple one – had taken that idea into itself. Had enjoyed it, played with it, turned it this way and that until Simeon now looked for the ghostly shapes of their former selves whenever he came up here.

And he came here very often.

Tonight, as most nights, he was watching the ocean, waiting for the lights. Starry nights were best for this because he knew the constellations and could line up the shoreside landmarks with the stars far out in the night landscape and make patterns that stuck more firmly in his head than simple words. Andrew had a telescope. He had acquired it when he was twelve years old, just at the time when Simeon was starting to make sentences again. Andrew had moved the telescope into Simeon’s room and sat for hours, training it on this far distant star or that much closer planet. He’d told Simeon stories about the constellations and talked to him about the stars and how far away they were and somehow this had infiltrated into Simeon’s slowly rebuilding brain, making connections the doctors had never believed possible.

Simeon still could not tie his laces, but he knew Orion and Cassiopeia and could picture Pegasus flying through the night sky and Draco breathing fire. When he had first met Rina Martin he had told her all about his stars and the way he watched for the lights and she had wanted to know all about the things he saw.

Now, he sent her lists and she read them and wrote him notes about them and she never laughed when he found it hard to tie his laces.

And so he watched tonight, looking for a boat in a stupid place and lights where no lights ought to be.

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