Lisa, Bright and Dark by John Neufeld

Author:John Neufeld [Neufeld, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: NA
Publisher: Open Road Distribution
Published: 2013-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

14

Elizabeth spoke first. “The trouble with reasonable adult human beings is that they collapse when they meet other reasonable adult human beings. We don’t.”

We had decided immediately, when we knew that Mr. Fickett and Mr. Milne hadn’t found that devastating argument we all needed, what to do next. The vague idea we had had about group therapy simply had to be put into action. We had to get Lisa to open up, to lean on us and depend on us and to share her illness with us so that it wouldn’t seem so frightening, so lonely.

Mr. Fickett had come to us earlier to say that he thought the best thing we could do was not get involved any further in Lisa’s problems. That perhaps her parents would come around by themselves and realize what she needed.

I think Mr. Fickett was beginning to worry that all this might be having an “unhealthy” effect on the three of us. But he was worrying about the wrong thing. He knew he was right to be concerned, but he didn’t want to be concerned about the right thing.

“At least they tried,” M.N. said. “Maybe Mr. Shilling just needs time to think.”

“He wants the time not to think,” Elizabeth said quickly. “He’d like to forget the whole thing.”

“I would too,” I said, “if I were in his place. It can’t be any fun having people tell you your kid’s going nuts.”

“But you wouldn’t ignore that,” Elizabeth said.

The doorbell rang then, and M.N. went to let Lisa in.

Before this, though, M.N. had formed a plan. She had a legal-size pad of paper and a pencil on her father’s desk to take notes on. Elizabeth and I were supposed to be as natural as possible and get Lisa to free-associate. This was one of M.N.’s new terms, which meant to start talking about one thing and then float on to another, and then on again to something else, finally sitting there blabbing about whatever came into your head. M.N. had read somewhere that when someone did this, he dropped “clues” as he went along that any half-witted listener could decipher and understand.

M.N. had decided to be the half-wit.

“Hi,” Lisa said as she came into the room ahead of M.N.

“Hi,” I said, wondering instantly if that meant something special to M.N. now.

“Well,” Lisa said, sinking down onto the floor in her usual wrapped-up position, “we didn’t win the game, did we?”

“Not yet,” Elizabeth said.

“I scared the hell out of Daddy, though,” Lisa said happily. “I don’t remember trying to do just that, but that’s certainly what I did. He’s still drinking.”

“At least someone else tried to help for a change,” said M.N.

“I wonder if trying is the whole thing,” Lisa answered. “Not really, though. I mean, I don’t really wonder. It’s just something you say.”

Mary Nell scratched something on her pad. Loudly. I winced.

“How do you feel?” Elizabeth asked Lisa.

“Tired. Always tired,” Lisa said. “What it is is that I never get any rest. I mean, when I’m asleep, I’m not.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.