Time for Raine

by C. Barry Denham

  This type of comment was not something he wanted to hear from someone entrusted with his child’s well-being.

  ****

  Raine glanced into the mirror and waited for the next question. Daddy or Miss Noelle or maybe some other people were on the other side of it, though Daddy had never mentioned watching her after the other testing sessions. She found it funny that the grown-ups didn’t know she was aware she was being watched. Not only had she read about it in the books at home, she had seen a one-way glass once on Daddy’s television. Sometimes he left the TV on in his room during the night. She guessed it helped him get to sleep. One time she came to his room in the middle of the night and was distracted by a program where a bad guy was being questioned about something bad the police thought he did. She watched the people watch the bad guy through the one-way glass and thought it funny when the man in the room who was questioning the bad guy walked up and fixed his hair in the mirror while everyone in the other room watched him. She never quite understood why they didn’t laugh like she did that night sitting on the carpet in Daddy’s room.

  “Miss Raine, I wonder if you could tell me who makes the laws in our country?”

  The question brought her back, and she turned toward the technician. “You mean our Congress?”

  “Yes, can you tell me how that happens?”

  “Do you mean what the Congress is supposed to do, or what they really do?”

  This seemed to confuse the technician. She flipped some paper, took her pen, and wrote something in a notebook. “Let’s stick to what the Congress is supposed to do.”

  Raine explained how the House of Representatives voted on bills and passed them on to the Senate, how the House controlled the funding of laws, and how the representation was determined by districts, based on the population, and how the Senate was composed of two senators per state. She went on to name the various sub-committees that existed and what a few of them were working on. She had found a website once on Daddy’s laptop that went into great detail concerning each congress person’s staff and what the function of each person was but figured the technician might not be interested in that—or have enough time to listen. There was much more she wanted to say concerning what the Congress did that they weren’t supposed to do, and how other branches of government seemed to take liberties outside their authorities, but the technician interrupted her.

  “That’s—that’s fine, Miss Raine,” she said. Her hands shook as she looked through her notes. “Let’s move on to the executive branch of the government. Can you tell me who the President is?”

  The technician looked sick as she recited both the names of the President and each member of the Cabinet. She went on to the vice president after that but was stopped before she had finished with the names and staff positions of the First Lady.

  “That’s very good.” The technician poured water from a pitcher into a glass. “Would you like some water?”

  Raine shook her head. “Don’t you want me to finish? Don’t you want to know the names of all the members of congress and what state they represent? I also know the names of most of the state congress members, too, if you want.”

  The technician’s face was very pale and she couldn’t seem to find words. Instead, she glanced nervously toward the mirror. She turned to Raine with a funny look on her face and stood.

  “Miss Raine, would you excuse me for a moment?” Her arms shook as she leaned across the table toward Raine. “Let’s take a short break. I-I’ll be right back.”

  Guess she wasn’t interested in hearing about the White House staff.

  ****

  Noelle sat in her office and reviewed the events of the day. The session with Raine Sampson had been surreal. Never in her entire career had she witnessed such perception and intelligence from a child, especially considering she was not yet three years of age. When she thought of her reaction to Raine’s answers posed by the technician, she put her hands over her face and shook her head.

  “Everything all right?”

  She flinched and looked at Connie, who stood in her office doorway.

  “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just closing everything down and getting ready to leave.”

  “No, that’s fine.” Noelle took a deep breath. “It’s been one of those days.”

  “You’re talking about the Sampson child, aren’t you?” Connie moved closer and leaned against the desk. “I read your notes before I filed her chart.”

  “Yes, extraordinary.”

  “To say the least. Something else bothering you?”

  Noelle frowned and looked at her friend. “I’m afraid I might have stepped over the line with her father.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “I guess I let the excitement of the moment overrule my professionalism.”

  “I’m not following you.” Connie sat in a chair across from her desk.

  Noelle guided a strand of hair behind her ear. “As you might imagine, as a single parent, Sean is very protective of his child. I don’t know where Raine’s mother is, but it seems he’s on his own in raising her, and dealing with all the ups and downs that come with it. And then I go and make a stupid comment.”

  Connie inquisitive expression was not unexpected.

  “My first thought was that I couldn’t wait to discuss this case with some of my colleagues.” She shook her head and examined a cuticle on her right hand. “I’m afraid Sean might have misinterpreted my priorities. Believe me, this little girl is so precious, and although at times she is on the top of her game, at other times I have observed her shutting down at the least bit of cross-examination. And Sean, in a way, is so much like her. He seems so vulnerable when Raine might be threatened.

  “Connie, there is no way I would ever do anything to hurt him or Raine.”

  “Whoa, doc.” Connie frowned. “Where is this coming from?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I’ve never heard you so concerned about a patient’s or parent’s feelings.”

  “I’m concerned about all my patients. And their families.”

  “Down, lady,” Connie said. She held out her hands in defense. “I didn’t mean to strike a nerve. You seem, well, overly involved with this one.”

  “Connie, she’s a special little girl.”

  “And he’s a special daddy, too?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You and I go back a long way,” Connie said. “I think you know me well enough to know I call it like I see it, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “I think this little girl and her father are more special to you than you are willing to admit.” Connie stood. She didn’t wait for a response and moved toward the door.

  Noelle sat quietly and thought about Connie’s comments. In a moment, Connie called out from the reception area and bid her good night.

  “Good night,” she whispered, but Connie was gone.

  Her friend was way off base, wasn’t she? She couldn’t possibly be getting personally involved with Raine and Sean. This was something that could not happen.

  Could it?

  Chapter Five

  There is an adage that claims the two greatest days of a boater’s life are the day he buys his boat and the day he sells it. Sean carried Raine aboard Time for Raine, his vintage forty-five-foot Morgan split-cabin sailboat. To him a different saying seemed more appropriate—“A boat is a hole in the water into which you constantly pour time and money.” Time for Raine required a lot of both, contradicting a third adage that suggested, “Sailing is free.”

  “Daddy, when did we get our boat?”

  “Oh, honey.” He paused from the arduous task of polishing the teak. “We’ve had this boat for a long time. Even before you came along.”

  “Did you have it before you met Mommy?”

  He was surprised by her curiosity. He adjusted his sunglasses. “No, Mommy and
I got it a year or so before we went to China to get you. She gave the boat to me for my birthday.”

  “For your birthday? Wow.”

  “Yes, it was the best present I’ve ever gotten. Your mommy knew how much I love sailing.”

  “How old were you when she got it for you?”

  “Thirty years old.” The words sounded ugly, as if he had spit something bitter from his mouth.

  “Then, you’re thirty…thirty-three years old now?”

  “That’s right, sweetie.” Lately, he felt every one of those years and a few more.

  “And you named the boat after me?”

  “Well, yes and no. We named the boat before we named you. And then we changed the boat’s name because of you.”

  “Huh?”

  Sean couldn’t leave it at that, given the boat was named a few days before the trip to China. The boat and their daughter-to-be had been nameless for a year before the idea was hatched for either. They kicked around prospective names for both but couldn’t decide. It wasn’t a time he wanted to dwell on. On the day he and Patty learned of her cancer, they spent the night on the boat, trying to drown the news in drink and optimism that too soon turned to tears. Heavy rains poured down that night, a product of a weak tropical storm. They made love in the cockpit of the boat, lashed by the hard-driving warm rain, and resolved to christen the boat Time for Rain.

  He looked at his sweet daughter, whose face begged to hear more.

  “We named the boat on a night it was raining and decided Raine—with an ‘e’ on the end, of course—was also the name we wanted to give to you.”

  Raine gave him a wrinkled expression. “So did you name me Raine because of the rain or because of the boat?”

  He laughed. “Neither. We liked the name. The boat was renamed after we decided on that name for you. Since it rained that night, it all seemed to fit.”

  She grew quiet and returned to scrubbing. He resumed his attack on some mildew on the starboard teak rail.

  “Daddy, am I doing this okay?” Raine looked up through the straps of her life jacket. She had a small bucket of water with mild soap and was cleaning the Plexiglas pane of the bow porthole to the forward cabin. She frowned. “Daddy, it looks like your back is burning.”

  It was early March on Ono Island, but the sun was hot enough to cook winter skin. Sean glanced at his shoulder.

  “Yes, dear.” He smiled and stood. He stepped into the cockpit, applied sunscreen, and shaded his eyes.

  “You’re doing a great job, little one. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you took the Plexiglas out to trick me. It’s so clean, I can’t tell it’s there.”

  She laughed and took a deep breath.

  The back porch ringer from the house phone broke the silence.

  “My little missy, what say we take a break and get something to drink?”

  “Daddy, do you think that’s Miss Noelle calling? Maybe she has the tests back? It’s been a long time since I answered all those questions at her office.”

  “Maybe.” He pulled on his shirt, knelt and faced her. “Sweetie, you don’t have to worry about the tests. It’s only to see which school Daddy needs to take you to when you’re a little older.” He smiled and gathered her into a tight hug. “Daddy’s going to love you the same, no matter how those old scores come out, okay?”

  She studied his face, and a smile crept onto her face. “I just kinda wish we could see Miss Noelle soon. I miss her. She’s really nice.”

  He wasn’t sure he was ready for her comment, but it all made sense. She was more interested in seeing the doctor than in how she did on the tests. He stood, grabbed her hand, and contemplated how to respond. He opted for silence.

  They walked the finger pier toward the house, and the outside bell for the telephone again shattered the silence. Sean flinched, and Raine giggled. “I guess somebody else is anxious to hear from Miss Noelle, too, huh, Daddy?”

  The doctor had said it would take two to three weeks to get the results. With them overdue, he had imagined all sorts of reasons why they were so late. Were the results bad? Had the nature of Raine’s answers indicated other issues with her? What if she did exceptionally well? What would that mean? All the questions were getting to him. Perhaps his daughter sensed this, in spite of his efforts to downplay the results. He found consolation by assuring himself that no matter what the test results revealed, life would go on as usual. More than once, he had reminded his daughter of the doctor’s assurance there was no pass and no fail. According to her, the tests were quite difficult, designed to push the limits of a child’s knowledge.

  “Daddy, what happens if I did really well on the tests? Will I have to go somewhere far away to school?”

  Sean paused again and knelt. Since that day last fall, the way he communicated, the way he related to his daughter had changed dramatically. He was forced to stop treating her like a toddler and start treating her as an older and more mature child. And yet she was still only three years old. In terms of his relationship with her, it was as if years had passed in a matter of a few months. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about this. In some ways they had been robbed of those precious years of her growing up. He would watch her closely and do what he could to protect her from her own speedy maturation process.

  “Of course not, little one,” Sean said. “Daddy wouldn’t send you off somewhere to school.” He looked into her eyes. “You know Daddy couldn’t spend even one day without seeing you. And even if that were so, you know Daddy would go with you and be with you the whole time, don’t you?”

  She giggled and threw her arms around his neck. “I love you, Daddy.”

  Inside the kitchen door, he picked up the phone on the fifth ring, beating the answering machine. Dr. Victor responded, and he put on his casual face. His hands shook slightly, and he wondered if it was for the anticipated test scores or from getting a chance to speak with the doctor again.

  “Hi, doc, can you hold on a minute?”

  “Sure.” There was excitement in her voice. “Oh, and don’t you think it’s time you called me Noelle?”

  Sean turned to Raine. “Honey, why don’t you get a juice box from the fridge and if you can reach it, would you get Daddy a bottled water?”

  Raine nodded.

  “Sorry, doc—I mean Noelle, we were out on the boat.”

  “Hmmm, that sounds great. I’m envious. Well, we got the test results in late yesterday. I wanted to call you then, but I know you’re busy that time of the day getting dinner and settling Raine in for bed.”

  “No problem. You can call me any time, day or night.” He took the bottled water from little outstretched hands. He covered the phone for a moment, and whispered a thank you to his daughter, who stood looking at him expectantly. “So what’s the story?”

  After an audible deep breath, she spoke slowly. “I don’t know any other way to say this but to say it straight out.”

  There was enough pause to give Sean worry. Little dark eyes watched him closely.

  “So, is my daughter a genius, or what?”

  “I’ve never seen anything like this…ever. Neither have any of my colleagues.”

  “Go on,” Sean pleaded as calmly as he could muster. He gave his daughter a thumbs-up. His heart continued to race. The phone went silent. “Noelle?”

  “Sorry. I was reviewing the charts and summaries again.” She took a deep breath. “On the cognitive tests, she made the highest rating.”

  “You mean higher than the other tests?”

  “No, Sean,” she said as if he had asked an absurd question. “The institution’s highest rating ever recorded for that phase of the testing. For any child. Anywhere. Anytime. I thought it was a mistake, so I called to confirm. They verified to me no other child had ever come close to that level of score.”

  “Wait a minute. Did I hear you correctly?”

  “Yes, I’m talking the highest score ever registered by the testing engine. And this institution tests over ten thousan
d children a year, from all over the world.”

  His legs were weak, and he made his way to the chair.

  “What is it, Daddy?” Raine hopped onto his lap.

  He covered the receiver.

  “Sweetie, you did really well on the tests. I am so proud of you.”

  “Sean?” Noelle asked.

  He had taken his ear from the phone, totally forgetting about the receiver. He held it to his ear.

  “Are you there?”

  “Yes, I’m here.”

  “That’s not all. On all the other tests, the quantitative ones, she made near hundred percent. Ninety-nine-plus percent average, in fact. No child has ever done that before in even one of these tests, let alone all of them. Few adults could do any better than eighty percent. She got an average ninety-nine point four percentile. That’s on all of them. Essentially, what that means—”

  There was a shuffling noise, and the doctor counted in a whisper. “Of the three hundred fifty-three questions on the tests, she missed two answers. And as I recall, her answers could be argued.”

  At this point, Noelle’s voice had become loud enough for Raine to notice.

  “I see,” he said, as he moved the receiver away from Raine. “So…”

  “When these scores make the rounds at the testing institute—and I’m not sure that hasn’t happened already—people will be contacting us, wanting to talk with you and Raine. In fact, it might be difficult to convince some people the scores are legit. Fortunately, these tests are so closely held, the people who matter know they are legit. Since there is an annual award given for the highest score—and she will definitely blow the competition away—this will eventually get out to others in the scientific and academic community. I don’t think anyone can stop that, HIPAA privacy laws or not. And then it will be a matter of time before the media and a whole lot of other people get thrown into the mix. I know this is probably as overwhelming to you and will be to Raine as it is to me, but Sean, your daughter is absolutely—”

  “Wait. Wait. Hold on a minute. Can we just slow this down?” Although Raine was not facing him, she was very still, and he sensed she wasn’t missing a beat from his reaction to the phone call. His heart hammered, and he fought a wave of panic. To make matters worse, he had to keep his cool with Raine. “Give me time to let this sink in and talk it over with Raine, and then we’ll call you back. Can you fax or email the test summaries to me?”