1
Vic was relieved beyond words. If it had turned out that Jamie needed more than he could provide, it may have pushed him over the edge. He hadn’t taken a drink in almost a year and a half, and the stress had been unbearable. The free help for Jamie was a Godsend. He was so embarrassed to take money from his and Karen’s parents, and now he could give it back and regain his lost self-esteem.
Karen and Vic lay in bed discussing Doctor Rubin and Jamie. Karen was having some second thoughts and she knew they would disappear if she talked things out.
“Vic, I hope we’re doing the right thing for Jamie.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Vic asked.
“I just can’t imagine what Jamie will feel like. She’s going to be on display. A child that intelligent hooked up with a doctor like Elaine? Well, Jamie is going to be like a guinea pig.”
“Is that so bad? She knows she’s very special. Anyway, I don’t think we could do a better job with her than Doctor Rubin. Do you?”
Karen thought about it for a moment. The thing that troubled her the most was something else entirely. She debated with herself whether or not to bring it up. “Vic, one of the things I’m most worried about is losing Jamie.”
Vic was astonished. “What do you mean by that?”
“She’s going to be so advanced in every way. We won’t be able to keep up with her, Vic. I’m afraid we won’t have anything to offer her.”
“That’s not true, Karen, and you know it! We’ll offer her our love and support. That’s plenty important, and nobody else can do that for her like we can.”
“I just can’t help it,” she confided. “I’m frightened.”
Vic put his arm around Karen and drew her head against his chest. He whispered, “I’m plenty frightened too. It’s a big enough responsibility just having a wife and kid, but having a genius like this is awesome. In my opinion there isn’t anyone better to put our trust in than Elaine Rubin. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll just stop it. Nobody’s holding a gun to our heads.”
Karen lifted her head and kissed Vic on the cheek. “There’s something I haven’t told you for a long time. I love you! And I’m really proud of you too. I know how hard all this has been for you. It means an awful lot to me that you quit drinking for me and Jamie.”
They fell asleep with Karen’s head resting on Vic’s arm.
.....
Jamie couldn’t fall asleep. It was a combination of excitement and fear that kept her up. She couldn’t wait to begin her sessions with Doctor Rubin, but there was something deep inside gnawing away at her. She had no idea what it could be. No matter how hard she concentrated, she couldn’t isolate it in her thoughts.
2
The big day finally arrived. Karen and Jamie got in the car and drove to Doctor Rubin’s office. There was a tension in the air that both of them felt.
“Isn’t it going to be fun, Mother?”
“Oh, yes! It’s going to really be exciting,” Karen replied. Her mind was elsewhere.
They both hardly spoke for the rest of the ride. They each quietly contemplated what was going to happen. Karen parked the car and they walked hand in hand to the office. The receptionist smiled as they entered.
“My, you two are early!” she said too cheerfully for a Monday morning.
“Well, I wasn’t sure how traffic would be,” explained Karen, “so I played it safe and left early. I wouldn’t want to keep Doctor Rubin waiting.”
The receptionist replied, “I’m a bit early myself. Usually I don’t get in before nine. By the way, since we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, won’t you please just call me Barb?”
“Sure, Barb. I’m Karen and this is Jamie.”
“Hello, Jamie. We didn’t get a chance to officially meet last week.”
Jamie very politely said, “Pleased to meet you, Barb.”
Barbara smiled at Jamie’s sweet formality. She turned to Karen and told her, “Doctor Rubin is in, so let me just see if she’s ready for you.” She picked up the phone and pushed a button on it. A moment later she said, “The Meyers are here..........Certainly.” She looked up at Karen and told her, “You may go right in.”
“Good morning!” Elaine greeted as they entered. “Are you all set to begin?”
Karen and Jamie both nodded their heads.
“Karen, I prepared some release forms for you and Victor to sign. It’s just standard stuff, nothing unusual.”
Karen felt uncomfortable. “I’m not really sure.....Do I have to sign this now? Vic should really...”
Doctor Rubin interrupted her to ease the tension. “Really they’re nothing. You don’t have to sign them this minute. Just take them home and read them over. If you have any questions, then just call me and ask. Oh, and you can have a lawyer look at them if you like.” She watched Karen’s expression to see if she was comfortable enough. She decided to add, “One’s not much different than what you’d sign to send Jamie to day camp. The other is just permission for me to use Jamie’s case study in my book. And you’ll notice that it specifically guarantees that Jamie’s true identity will not be revealed.”
This reassured Karen. She hadn’t considered the fact that Jamie’s privacy would be protected. It really put her mind at ease.
Doctor Rubin asked, “Why don’t you just leave Jamie with me for right now? You can wait outside or do whatever you’d like. We’ll be finished by eleven and you can pick her up then. Just one thing, please. Sometimes Barbara has to leave the office, so I would appreciate it if you’re punctual about picking Jamie up.”
“No problem, Doctor Rubin. I’ll just run a few errands that I planned,” she lied. “I’ll see you both at eleven.” Karen left and closed the door behind her.
Elaine smiled at Jamie and thought about how they should begin. She nonchalantly reached over to the recorder and pressed the record button. “Jamie, why don’t I start by telling you what I’d like to do this week? First of all, please call me Elaine. We’ll treat each other just like friends. How does that sound?”
“Sure Doctor Rubin. Oops! Sure, Elaine.”
“There! Now you’ve got it. I’d like to start by having you take some tests that I’ve prepared. Some will be very easy, and some will be hard. I’ll use these tests to sort of get to know you. They’ll help me plan exactly how the two of us should work together. Do you have any questions?”
“What kind of tests?”
“Well, let’s just get them out here so you can see for yourself.”
Elaine took the tape recorder and a large folder from her desk and got up. She took Jamie’s hand and led her to a small table in the corner of the office. There was a small chair on one side for Jamie and a regular size chair on the other for Elaine. They both sat down and Elaine opened the folder.
“This first test is an easy one. I’m going to show you some pictures, and you’re going to tell me what they are.”
.....
The testing held Jamie’s attention. There was nothing difficult initially, and Jamie seemed to enjoy it. It appeared that Jamie liked Elaine and they worked very well together. The first test used simple black and white drawings showing scenes of people doing things together. There were mixtures of adults and children, males and females, and even some dogs and cats. Jamie would tell Elaine what she saw, and then Elaine would prompt her to elaborate on how the people got there, or what they were doing or saying. The tests were geared to determine a number of things, not the least of which was whether Jamie’s answers demonstrated any signs of abuse. That was the first area that most child psychologists addressed in any new case they took.
Following the initial test, Elaine slipped in an open question and answer period. This helped to relax Jamie and also helped Elaine to find out if there were any major psychological problems.
It was going to take some time for Jamie to totally trust and confide in Elaine. Until then, most of the work would be geared toward measuring Jamie’s intelligence, her knowledge base and the mechanics of her thought processes. The difficulty of the tests was deliberately low at first, gradually building up to higher and higher levels. This served to initially provide a comfortable atmosphere to build trust. Then it established accurate qualitative and quantitative baselines.
.....
Jamie was enjoying herself immensely. Elaine was keeping her busy, even though the stuff was pretty easy. Just the newness of it all aroused Jamie’s curiosity. She tried to anticipate what would come next, and she tried to understand the purpose of each picture she was shown and each question she was asked.
Elaine was a nice person too. Jamie could sense that Elaine really liked her. And best of all, Elaine always addressed her like an adult. Lots of other people talked to her like she was a baby, and she hated that.
The picture test was easy, but there was something really weird about it. The pictures seemed to change as she talked about them. One second she might see a picture of Mother and Dad, and the next second she would see other people she didn’t recognize. The more carefully she watched the pictures, the more they appeared to change. A few times Jamie thought about mentioning this to Elaine. But each time she was about to say something she got a scared feeling in her stomach. It was so strange! It was almost as though someone else was controlling her. She seriously began to wonder if maybe she hadn’t really killed the old Jamie.
She knew she couldn’t discuss old Jamie with Elaine, but she was determined to try and ask her about the changing pictures; if not this visit, then maybe the next one.
The question and answer part of the session was really fun. Elaine asked her questions about television, books, food, and all sorts of neat stuff that she knew. Best of all Jamie got her own turn to ask Elaine questions. She found out Elaine wasn’t married, didn’t have children, and she lived in a big house her mother and father left her when they died. Elaine was sad when she talked about her mother and father dying. Jamie tried to ask her about dying, but she got that scared feeling in her stomach again.
It hardly felt like she had been there for more than ten minutes when the session was over. Jamie’s mother was in the waiting room when she went out. She couldn’t wait to tell her all about the session.
As the two of them drove home, Jamie told her mother about the pictures and the questions and all the things she and Elaine talked about. She was already looking forward to Wednesday, but she knew she had some work to do between now and then. She had to find out if old Jamie was dead or not.
.....
That evening, Jamie waited at the window for Vic to come home. She couldn’t wait to tell him all about her first day with Elaine. He arrived a little late, and when he opened the front door she pounced on him.
“How’s my favorite little girl?” he asked. “I guess you’re all ready to tell me about your first visit with Doctor Rubin.”
“It’s Elaine, Daddy. We had a great visit. And guess what! Her mother and father are dead.”
“Is that right?” he asked cautiously. “Did she tell you that?”
“Yes! And we talked about all sorts of wonderful stuff. I think we’re going to do testing for a while. She wants to evaluate me.”
Vic tried as hard as he could to act excited. He knew how important this was to Jamie, but he had put in a particularly hard day. All he wanted to do was eat dinner and crash. “I can’t wait to hear all about it, sweetheart. Let’s talk over dinner, okay?” He called into the kitchen, “Hey, Karen, I’m home and I’m starving.”
Karen’s voice came back muffled from the kitchen, “I’m serving right now. Why don’t you two wash up and come eat.”
At the dinner table, a few bites of meatloaf and potatoes took some of Vic’s irritability away. He knew that Jamie was bursting at the seams. “Okay, Jamie, I’m all ears.”
She told him all about her first day. Karen just sat there grinning at Jamie’s excitement and at Vic’s obvious struggle to appear fascinated with every detail Jamie told him. When Jamie was all talked out, he turned to Karen and listened to her inputs.
“There’s some release forms Doctor Rubin gave us to sign. I read them, but I thought you might understand them better.”
Jamie corrected her. “It’s Elaine, Mother. Did you forget?”
“Excuse me dear,” she apologized. She informed Vic, “We’ll all be calling her Elaine from now on, dear. It’s all nice and friendly that way.” She winked at Jamie and Jamie grinned.
“So what are these releases for?” he asked Karen.
“One just looks like a permission slip for Elaine to look after her, and the other has something to do with using Jamie’s case in her book. But it says that she won’t mention Jamie by name. Why don’t you look them over for yourself?”
“Sure,” he agreed, “but you’re better at that kind of stuff than me. If they look all right to you, I’ll sign them.”
Jamie waited until they were through talking. “Daddy, do you think Elaine is pretty?”
This caught both of them off guard. Vic cast a puzzled look at Karen and she shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, I don’t know, Jamie. Yeah, I guess she’s pretty. Why do you ask?”
“I was just wondering why nobody married her.”
They had absolutely no idea what to say. Karen came to the rescue and asked, “Why don’t you ask Elaine, honey?”
“I did Mother. She said she almost got married once but her courier got in the way.”
Karen bit her lip and tried not to laugh. “I think she meant her career, honey.”
“What’s that?” Jamie wanted to know.
“It’s her job; her work, dear.” She saw the puzzled look in Jamie’s eyes and she cut off the next question before Jamie asked. “Why don’t you ask Elaine all about it next visit?”
That seemed to do it. Jamie finished her dinner with no further discussion. After dinner, they watched television until it was Jamie’s bedtime. Jamie asked that Vic read her a bedtime story instead of Karen. He wondered what was up.
Vic sat on the edge of Jamie’s bed and read her a chapter from one of her books. When he was finished, he tucked her in and leaned over to kiss her good night.
She whispered in his ear, “Daddy, who’s your favorite Jamie?”
“You are, of course!” he answered without hesitation.
“No, Daddy. I mean which....” She felt the fear in her stomach. “Oh, never mind. You’re my favorite too, Daddy.”
He kissed her good night and closed her door behind him. When he got downstairs, Karen was sitting on the sofa.
“Jamie just asked me something really weird, honey.”
“What’s that?” she inquired.
“Well, I guess it really wasn’t weird. Maybe I just didn’t understand. It’s probably nothing. Just forget it.”
Karen reached over and handed him some papers. “Here! Why don’t you check out these releases for yourself.”
.....
Jamie was really upset with herself. She came so close to revealing the secret. And why? There was no reason. It was almost like she lost her senses for a moment.
It had to be the other Jamie. Was it possible? Was she alive inside of her and trying to take control again? Jamie had to concentrate. That was the only way to find out. She turned her thoughts inward and began a laborious search of all her memories. Who was in there scaring her? She was determined not to give up until she knew the answer.
As she concentrated with all her will, she fell asleep. It wasn’t a peaceful sleep. It was disturbed by all sorts of images and voices. Her little body writhed around in bed as she dreamt about things she wasn’t aware of while awake.
She sat up abruptly in bed. Her face was covered with perspiration. She found another little girl inside. She was a brown-skinned little girl who Jamie seemed to know. Then, just like that, she was gone. Jamie lay back and slept peacefully through the rest of the night.
3
Wednesday morning’s drive to Elaine’s office was filled with conversation. Jamie was full of questions about how much more testing there would be and when she would start learning things. She wanted to know if she would go to regular school or special school, and if she could bring anybody else in to meet Elaine.
“Whoa,” Karen cautioned. “I know you’re excited, but let’s take things one at a time. We’ll be there in a few minutes and you can ask Elaine all the things you want.”
Jamie’s reference to school caught Karen by surprise. The question was probably a very good one. Vic and Karen never decided what they would do about school. They just assumed the public school system would deal with Jamie. It was pretty likely at this point that Jamie was going to be too much for the regular schools to handle. Karen wondered immediately about the cost.
“Look, Mother! There’s the office. I can see it from here.”
Karen snapped out of her thoughts and replied, “Oh, yes. You’re right. It’s that brick one through the trees, isn’t it?” It struck Karen how incredibly observant Jamie was. She began to wonder what this child would be when she grew up. She couldn’t picture Jamie as a housewife or a secretary.
They pulled into a parking space and headed for the entrance. Karen had made plans this time. She was going to do some grocery shopping while Jamie and Elaine had their session. It hadn’t occurred to her on Monday that she would have all that time to kill, and she was bored silly. At least shopping provided something for her to do for most of the session.
They timed things much better this trip. It was only a few minutes before nine as they entered the waiting room.
“Hi, guys,” Barb greeted. “Doctor’s all set to get started.”
“Hi,” Karen answered. “I brought back the releases.” She handed them to Barb. “I’ll be running along and doing some shopping. I’ll see you in two hours.” She bent down and kissed Jamie’s cheek.
“Bye Mom,” Jamie spouted as she spun around and knocked on Elaine’s door.”
“Oh, you can just go right in,” Barb advised her. “Doctor Rubin is waiting for you.”
Jamie smiled and corrected her. “Elaine!”
.....
“Good morning, Jamie,” came the greeting from the little table in the corner of the room. “Are you all set to go to work?”
Jamie bounced over and sat down in the little chair. “Yes. What are we going to do today, Elaine?”
“I’ve got another little test to do. It’s called ‘Associations’. It’s more like a game than a test, and it’s always a lot of fun.”
“How do we play?”
“I’ll say something and you just say the first thing that you think of. But the trick is not to take too much time before you answer. Do you understand?”
“I guess so. But what’s this test for?”
Elaine wasn’t used to such questions from children as young as Jamie. This was going to take some time for Elaine to get used to also.
“It tells us special things about how your thinking works. Every person thinks differently, and.... Well, suppose we just try it and see how it goes.”
“Okay!” Jamie sat straight up in her chair, as if that would help her answer faster.
Elaine had a notebook and pen in her hands, and she started the tape recorder. “Here we go, then.” She paused and looked inquisitively at Jamie. Jamie nodded to indicate her readiness.
“Mother” - “Father”
“Food” - “Ice cream....Oh, is that all right, Elaine? I mean, should I...”
Elaine cut her off in mid sentence. “You’re doing fine. Say whatever comes to mind. There are no right or wrong answers.”
Jamie said, “Go on.”
“Bed” - “Sleep”
“Big” - “Little”
The exercise went on for fifteen more minutes with Elaine making occasional notes in the book. Jamie was finally showing signs of boredom, and it was time for Elaine to take advantage of the reduced alertness.
“Cry” - “Sad”
“Dream” - “Scary”
“Hot” - “Cold”
“Hand” - “Foot”
“Jamie” - “Joan”
“Red” - “Blue”
“Up” - “Down”
Elaine made a few notes. “Well, I think that’s enough of this game for a while. Are you tired?”
“Yeah. I don’t feel too good, either. Can I have a drink?”
Elaine was very curious. She had at least two areas to cover in the next month or so. She underlined the words ‘scary’ and ‘Joan’. “Sure, Jamie. Do you want water, or maybe juice or soda?”
“Water, please.”
Elaine filled a cup from the water cooler in the office. She handed it to Jamie and asked, “Do you want to lie down or something?”
“No, thank you. I’m okay.”
“Great! Then let’s try some harder things. How would you like to play a story game?”
“How do you play?” Jamie asked.
“I’ll mention some things to you, then you make up a short story to go with them. How does that sound?”
“I’m not sure I understand how to play.”
“I’ll give you an example, Jamie. Let’s suppose I mention a car, a book and a little girl. Then you might tell me that Mother and Father took the little girl for a ride in the car, and they read a book to her during the ride. See? Isn’t that easy?”
Jamie wasn’t convinced, but she said, “Okay. Let’s try it.”
Elaine began with groups of three items. As Jamie caught on, Elaine increased to groups of four items. Then she began to select one item in each group that had no obvious relationship with the other three. Jamie handled things well and was very imaginative in connecting the odd item to the other three. Elaine noticed nothing unusual about Jamie’s responses, except that Jamie almost always hesitated when her own name was used as one of the items.
Elaine decided to terminate that exercise and do some identity work. She sensed that Jamie had some sort of identity problem. It didn’t make any sense to Elaine, especially given Jamie’s extremely young age.
“We’ve got about a half hour left today,” she informed Jamie. “Let’s just take some time to talk about you. I want to get to know some more about you.”
Jamie looked disappointed. “Okay,” she reluctantly conceded. “But I was hoping we could play more test games.”
“We’ll pick that up again on Friday, Jamie. I was wondering if you can remember way back to when you were a little baby. Can you?”
“Some stuff, I guess. But not a whole bunch.”
“Okay. Can you remember when you took your very first steps?”
“Yes. I’m not sure how old I was, but I remember.”
“Tell me about it, please.”
“I pulled myself up by the sofa. Then I turned around and I walked almost all the way to the television. Then I fell down.”
“That’s really good,” Elaine complimented. “You remember well. Did anyone see you take those first steps?”
“Yes.”
“Was it your mother?”
“No! Nobody was there with me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I misunderstood, Jamie. Then nobody saw you that first time. When was the first time you walked and somebody saw you?”
“That was the first time,” Jamie said insistently.
Elaine saw that there was obviously a misunderstanding between them. “Let’s go back to that first time you walked. You said you almost got to the television before you fell down. Right so far?”
Jamie just nodded.
“Did anyone see you?”
“Yes.”
“And who was that?”
“The other Jamie.”
“Is she a friend of yours?”
Jamie held her stomach and grimaced in pain. She looked frightened. “I don’t feel good. I want to go home.”
Elaine struck a nerve and she made a last minute attempt. “Okay, Jamie. We’ll check if your mother is back yet.” She started for the door to put Jamie at ease, and very nonchalantly added, “But, one last thing, Jamie. Real quick, who’s the other Jamie?”
Jamie let go of her stomach and sat up straight in her chair. Without the slightest malice or expression at all, she simply said, “That’s none of your business.”
Elaine was shocked, but she maintained her composure in front of Jamie. “Okay, we’ll just see if your mother is here yet.”
Elaine opened the door to the waiting room and found Karen flipping through a magazine. She called to her and gestured for her to come in to the office. When Karen came in, Elaine closed the door and told Karen, “Jamie’s not feeling too well, so she’d like to go home now.”
“Jamie, what’s wrong?” Karen inquired.
“I have a stomach ache, Mother. Can we go now?”
“Why sure, honey,” Karen turned to face Elaine. “See you on Friday.”
“If you have just a moment, Karen, I wanted to mention something to you. Jamie, why don’t you have a seat in the waiting room. I just need one minute with your mother.”
Jamie complied, and Elaine closed the door. “It’s nothing serious, Karen,” she reassured. “I noticed something in Jamie’s responses that I was curious about. Does she have any friends or family also named Jamie?”
“No!” Karen said cautiously.
“It’s no big deal, really. I just had the impression that Jamie might be exhibiting a slight form of personality disorder. Does she ever refer to herself in the plural, or mention her own name as if it were someone else she was speaking about?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” Karen’s facial expression revealed some concern. She added, “What does this mean?”
Elaine didn’t want to alarm Karen or Jamie so she simply told Karen, “It’s probably nothing. Please don’t say anything to Jamie about it. I’ll get to the heart of it next session if I can. It’s very important that Jamie trusts me, so I can’t caution you enough not to mention this to her. I promise that I’ll keep you informed when I figure out what’s going on. Deal?”
“Deal!” Karen replied. “See you on Friday.”
.....
On the ride home, Jamie was the first to speak. “How come Elaine has to ask me so many personal questions? Isn’t she just supposed to teach me stuff?”
Karen was wondering what Elaine was concerned about. She wanted desperately to talk with Jamie about it, but she knew she couldn’t do it. She decided to just leave it with, “I really don’t know how it all works, Jamie. Why don’t you talk with Elaine about that?”
“I guess I should,” Jamie said with disappointment in her voice. She looked out the window for quite a while, then looked back at Karen. “Mom, I felt a little funny today when I was with Elaine. I think she’s pushy.”
“What do you mean, sweetheart?” she asked.
“She just asks a lot of questions that I don’t want to talk with her about. Next time I’m going to tell her to stop. I’m not coming to see her if she’s going to be so pushy.”
“That’s strictly up to you, dear,” Karen assured. “But I think Elaine doesn’t mean anything by it. She just wants to find things out about you so she knows the best way to work with you.”
Jamie considered this for a moment. “I guess so, Mom. But I got so mad at her today. I don’t even know why.”
Karen figured there was no harm in asking. “Do you want to talk to me about it?”
“No. I’ll talk to Elaine about it on Friday.”
Karen thought to herself, I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with a two-year-old.
4
Friday’s session began with some reading exercises. Elaine wanted to establish the exact reading skills that Jamie possessed. She tied the reading exercise to an evaluation of Jamie’s comprehension skills. They worked for almost an hour on this series of tests, and Jamie began to show signs of boredom. Elaine decided this was a perfect time to get back to the business from the last session.
“How about some more question and answer work, Jamie?”
Jamie was nervous about this part of the session. “Okay, Elaine. But I don’t like this part so much.”
Elaine wanted to ask why, but she didn’t want to waste a question and risk upsetting Jamie for nothing. Her first question was a carefully thought out one. “Doesn’t it feel lonely sometimes, being less than two years old and being as smart as seven or eight-year-olds?”
“No.”
“Do you have any friends to play with?”
“Some.”
“Don’t you ever feel like you want to play games with other kids your age, but you also want to do things that bigger people do?”
“No.”
This was leading nowhere. “Jamie, do you want to take a turn asking the questions?”
“When are we going to start learning stuff?”
“We’ll start that soon. I do need to find out more about you, though. I can tell that you’re annoyed with me. Do you want to tell me why?”
Jamie really didn’t want to talk about it. She felt like Elaine was being pushy again. She used the best tact she could muster and said, “I just don’t like answering all your personal questions. Can’t you just treat me like a smart little child?” Something began to churn up deep inside her. Before she even realized what was happening, the words just blurted out. “You keep trying to probe inside of me, like there’s something more than meets the eye. I won’t tolerate your psychoanalysis bullshit.”
Jamie couldn’t tell who was shocked more. They stared at one another for a long time before the tears started pouring down Jamie’s face. Elaine seemed stunned. Fear was written all over her face.
Jamie was angry with herself. She had revealed something that she knew was forbidden to reveal. But why? Things were at work within her that she didn’t understand. She saw images of people and things she didn’t know. She was frightened of what she might say. Something deep inside of her warned her that the best thing she could do was say nothing at all until she figured out what was happening. As she stared at Elaine, the room began to spin and she broke into a cold sweat. Everything went white and silent.
.....
Elaine saw Jamie collapsing and she lunged forward to catch her. She yelled for Barbara, and a moment later Barbara stood there in a panic.
“Jamie fainted. Clear off the sofa in the waiting room, and get something to cover her,” Elaine ordered, and Barb disappeared. Elaine carried Jamie over to the sofa and placed her down gently. She raised Jamie’s feet and covered her with a coat that Barbara got from the closet. “Jamie,” she kept repeating, hoping that she was all right. Jamie didn’t respond, and Elaine was frightened.
Barbara brought over a cold wet towel and patted Jamie’s forehead. It seemed to do the trick. Jamie opened her eyes and Elaine immediately said, “Oh, sweetheart, are you all right?”
As Jamie looked around, it was obvious to Elaine that she was disoriented. Jamie looked at Elaine and asked, “What happened?”
“You’re in the waiting room, dear. You fainted in the office. Just lie still for right now. Did you have breakfast this morning, Jamie?”
“Yes. Where’s Mother?”
“She should be here any time, Jamie. It’s a little early for her to pick you up. How do you feel?”
“Frightened. I said something terrible to you, didn’t I?”
“That’s okay. It wasn’t so bad.” Elaine was frightened too, and she was trying not to show it. “What’s important is that you’re okay.”
“I feel okay. I’m tired and I want to go home. When will my mother get here?”
“Probably within a half hour, Jamie. Are you sure you’re all right?”
Jamie said nothing. She closed her eyes and fell right to sleep.
Elaine was sitting by Jamie’s side when Karen came back. Karen ran over to Jamie and asked, “What happened? What’s going on? Is she okay?”
Elaine explained what had happened. Karen listened until Elaine was through, then said, “I think I’ll just take her home for now. I’ll keep an eye on her through the weekend. Maybe she’s coming down with something.”
.....
Jamie rested all afternoon. She watched television between naps, and Karen noticed that she was tossing and turning in her sleep. She was thinking of calling Doctor Kravitz, but she decided to wait for Vic to get home.
At about 4:30 PM, Jamie awoke from a particularly animated dream, and Karen was at her side. Jamie sat straight up and looked around as if she didn’t know where she was.
“Mother, I can’t go back to Elaine’s anymore.”
Karen stroked her fingers through Jamie’s hair and asked, “Why not, darling? I thought you liked Elaine.”
Jamie replied coldly, “I want to be like any other child. I can learn things by myself now.”
Karen considered this and told Jamie, “You can do whatever you want concerning Doctor Rubin. If you want to quit seeing her, that’s fine with me. I only want what’s best for you, Jamie.”
“I know, Mother,” she whispered as she hugged Karen.
.....
Jamie was in a fantasy world where people’s faces were shooting out of every corner of the room. The faces came right up to Jamie, then disappeared. She saw Joan Spencer, Paula Austin, Zoron, Jonah, and finally her own face. Each face stopped in front of her just long enough to say the word “Prodigy”, then disappeared with a ‘pop’, just like a balloon bursting.
Jamie awoke and realized she was dreaming. It took her a moment to figure out who she was. Her mother was sitting right there with her. Jamie knew she couldn’t go back to see Elaine.
