by Dynah Zale
“I’m sorry doctor.” The receptionist came running in behind Garrett. “He wouldn’t listen when I said he would need an appointment to see you.” Indignant of his pushy attitude she slanted her eyes down at him.
Instead of turning to leave, Garrett walked straight up to Dr. French’s antique desk and placed both hands, palms down, on top of it. “You will see my nephew today.” He ordered. “Or I will sit out in your waiting room all day and all night until you do.”
At that moment Garrett closely resembled a fire-breathing dragon. His nostrils flared as he spoke and his hot breath swept across Dr. French’s face. She glanced around Garrett. Blair patiently stood in the background; with his eyes focused down at the floor. He never bothered to look up; even though they were talking loudly about him.
“Sir.” The couple quietly seated on Dr. French’s couch stood up. “You can have our appointment.”
“You really don’t have to do that.” Dr. French tried to stop them.
“Doc, it’s all right.” One half of the couple responded. “If this child needs your help that badly then who are we to stand in his way?” They pointed in Blair’s direction.
Garrett held out his hand to the two women. “Thanks, I really appreciate this.”
“Don’t worry about it Councilman Dunn.” The couple lived in Garrett’s district so they immediately recognized him. Despite his disguise of dark sunglasses, jeans and baseball cap pulled down low over his eyes. “But since we’re giving our time to you we’re going to assume you’re going to pick up the tab for the entire session.”
Garrett chuckled at their efforts to hustle him. “Sure. That’s the least I can do.”
The couple left satisfied, but Dr. French was appalled by Garrett’s insistence to take it upon himself to wrangle into her appointment book. Garrett asked the receptionist could she keep an eye on Blair in the waiting room while he spoke with the doctor. When he sat down at the doctor’s desk, Dr. French did not look pleased.
“Councilman Dunn, I don’t know who you think you are, but this is my office and you can’t just—“
“Doc.” Garrett spoke loudly to drain out her voice, but then he realized something that left him with an eerie feeling. Dr. French’s office space was located in the same abortion clinic he and Renee had gone to ten years ago. Now he was here again, but this time he was trying to get help for the child they were going to kill. “I didn’t mean to be so brash just a moment ago, but I think my nephew needs to talk with someone and it could be a matter of life or death.”
Dr. French was now worried. “Is your nephew in some kind of trouble? Behavior problems? Substance abuse?” She asked.
“No, nothing like that.” He replied.
Dr. French was trained to recognize when a patient was nervous, lying or holding back information. She felt Garrett exhibited at least two of these symptoms.
“I think my nephew is gay.” He whispered.
“You can speak up. I can ensure you that these walls are sound proof.” She pulled out a fresh note pad and pen. “Why don’t you start from the beginning? How did you come to this conclusion that your nephew may be gay?”
Garrett spent over an hour bringing the doctor up to date on everything, from Reneé dying to Raquel going to jail. He finished up with Blair’s lady like behavior.”
Dr. French jotted down several notes, only looking up momentarily to document Garrett’s facial expressions. She was a strong believer that feelings were expressed through more than just words. When he finished, she dropped her pen down on her desk and spoke candidly. “So what would you like for me to do?”
“Isn’t the problem obvious? I want you to talk with Blair and then give me your professional opinion on whether or not you think he’s gay or if the death of his mother has anything to do with his feminine ways.”
Dr. French sat silent for a moment. Then she rose up from her seat and walked around on her stylish hard wood floors. She paused for a second at the window. “I think it’s a good thing that you would want your nephew to talk to someone especially with all the recent changes in his life, but what are you going to do if I come back with a diagnosis that the child is gay.”
“I cannot have a gay nephew.” He quickly replied. “I’m in the middle of a big election. The positive aspects of family values are very important to voters. Homosexuality is an abomination.”
The doctor grew wary of Garrett’s true intentions. It sounded like he was more worried about his image then Blair’s welfare. “Do you believe this therapy will benefit you or Blair?”
He looked her straight in the eye. “I need you to fix my so—” He stopped himself. “My nephew.”
Dr. French noticed his slip up but acted like she didn’t. “Councilman Dunn, I can’t guarantee that I can cure Blair or that he’ll stop acting the way you think is inappropriate for a young man to act, but I will meet with him. Once I understand what’s he’s thinking and how he’s feeling, then we can discuss how to proceed from there.”
“Fair enough.” Garrett left to send Blair in to speak with the doctor.
Chapter 37
Blair sat patiently out in the waiting area. The receptionist kept peeping at Blair out the corner of her eye. “Would you like a magazine to look at?” She held out the latest issue of National Geographic. He took it, and on his way back to his seat, a woman whose hips were so wide she had to turn sideways to walk through the doorway entered the office. A boy followed close behind her. He looked to be around the same age as Blair.
“K’mar, go take a seat over there while I talk with the lady.” Gray hair dominated the woman’s roots, which made her appear to be in her late fifties. She walked with a cane, but talked faster than a locomotive.
“I have an appointment today for my foster son K’mar. The state is paying for this visit and I need to make sure all the right paper work is filled out and filed because I can’t afford a five hundred dollar bill for one session with Dr. French.”
The receptionist looked on her computer screen. “Yes, I just need a few copies of his birth certificate and social security card. Did you bring that documentation with you?”
“I have it right here.”
“Great, follow me. The copy room is right down the hall. Afterwards, I’ll have you start filling out some forms that are required of all parents and guardians.”
The two left. Blair looked across the room at K’mar. He knew that kid. He was the one that tried to commit suicide. Blair kept glancing in K’mar’s direction. He looked so different than he did when they found him on the bathroom floor at the rec center.
“Why do you keep sneaking looks at me?” K’mar said loud enough for Blair to stop the sly glances in his direction. “You keep staring at me like you’re gay?”
“No.” Blair stuttered. “I…I was there that day.”
“Where?” K’mar expressed his anger through his snappy words. “What day?”
Blair’s eyes zeroed in on the scars left exposed on K’mar’s wrists. K’mar pulled down his long sleeve shirt to hide his scars.
“So what you were there?” K’mar got up close in Blair’s face. “What you gonna do about it?” He wasn’t bigger then Blair, but he was very intimidating.
“Why?” Blair was curious. “Why did you do it?”
K’mar stared into Blair’s black eyes and got lost in an abyss of loneliness. He plopped down in the seat next to Blair. “I was tired and I couldn’t find any way to escape. It’s hard for me to explain, but I felt like I was being chased by the enemy and I hit a dead end street. That day I had gotten to the point where I either had to turn around and fight the enemy, or give up. I gave up.”
He pulled up his sleeves revealing the result of his self-inflictions. “But if I had the chance to do it again I would make sure I did it right. I now know that the key to killing yourself is taking the control away from you. See I didn’t slit my writs deep enough.” He demonstrated with his fingers. “Plus the doctor said I didn’t slice
the blade in the right place. Those two kids that hung themselves at the school; once they started there was no way for them to stop. They had no choice but to see it through. So the next time, I’ll make sure that there is no turning back. I’ll do something like jump off a bridge or something.
“Was the enemy Uncle Richard?” Blair asked. K’mar looked at him strangely. ‘I mean Coach Weaver?”
“Why does everybody keep asking me that? It wasn’t him. Whatever they say he did, they’re wrong. He did nothing to me.”
The door to Dr. French’s office opened and out came Garrett. “Blair, the doctor would like to speak with you now.”
Chapter 38
“Blair, your uncle told me that you attended quite a few schools during the last school year.”
“Yes ma’am. I started the school year in Georgia. Then my mom got so sick that we moved here to be closer to my aunt. Then I transferred once more when I went to live with my uncle.”
“Must be rough always having to make new friends.”
Blair nodded his head unenthusiastically.
“Do you like your new school?”
Again, the boy responded positively. But then added, “Except…”
Traci watched Blair’s body language closely. Therapy sessions with children were so much more difficult than with adults. She could assess whether or not an adult was lying by different gestures or sudden movements but with children, it was so much harder to figure out what they were feeling. She never knew if they were nervous or just needed to use the bathroom.
“I get teased a lot at my new school.”
“Who teases you?”
“The other kids.”
“Why do they tease you?”
Blair looked around as if somebody else was in the room. Then he whispered, “Because I’m different.”
“Different? Why would you say you’re different?”
“I don’t know. I just feel different. I feel like I don’t belong.”
Traci thought it was a good sign that he was opening up to her. “Blair is there anybody at school you trust?”
Blair, paused a moment, “Yes, but if I tell you, you have to promise not to tell my uncle.”
“Blair.” She crossed her heart. “I promise.”
“My Uncle Richard. He used to be my teacher and then one day my dad came in and had Uncle Richard arrested.
“Arrested? Why?”
“I don’t know, but he did tell me I could never see or talk with Uncle Richard ever again.”
The way Blair talked about his uncle gave her the impression that Uncle Richard meant a lot to him. “What is it that makes this uncle so special to you?”
“My Uncle Richard would take me out to ball games and out to the amusement park and allow me to eat all the ice cream I want; sometimes we would just sit and talk for hours.”
“You don’t do those kinds of things with your Uncle Garrett.”
“Nope.”
“Come on. I’m sure Uncle Garrett has taken you somewhere.”
Blair thought for a moment. “Nope, not since I’ve come to live with him. He said maybe we’ll do something after the election.”
Dr. French glanced at her calendar. The election wasn’t until November and it was only early July. “Did you ever ask him why he doesn’t do anything with you?”
“He says he doesn’t have time. He’s too busy.”
Dr. French slammed her notepad shut. She was done talking. “Blair it was nice meeting you and I hope I get to talk with you again sometime.” She shook his hand before escorting him back out to the waiting area. Then she asked Garrett to join her back in her office.
“I think I may know what’s going on with Blair?”
“Okay.” Garrett was hopeful. “I hope you have something good to tell me.”
“Well, Councilman Dunn, honestly I think you have a normal little boy. There’s nothing wrong with him.”
“That’s it. That’s your diagnosis. There’s nothing wrong with him.”
“I’ve talked with him and I believe the problem lies with you and not with him.” Garrett gave her an absurd look. “Listen, in a typical house hold there is usually a mother and a father. Children emulate their parents. Girls gravitate towards their mothers’ mannerisms and boys towards their fathers’. Even in single parent households there is usually someone else around for a boy to look to – an uncle, grandfather, but in Blair’s case he didn’t have that. He was missing that male role model the first ten years of his life. To clarify, some children may have a delay in their more masculine traits. I think that’s the case with Blair. Blair went without having a male figure in his life for ten whole years, and then you show up.”
“So it’s my fault he acts like a girl.”
“Your nephew needs a positive male role model around and he has one living in the same house as him.” She pointed her finger directly at Garrett. “But you spend no time with the boy. I think he’s suffering from a lack of attention. You know everything this boy has been through and you can’t seem to make any time to put him first. That’s a hurtful thing to a child and the one person he did feel a closeness with, you forbid him from having any contact with him.”
“Richard?”
“Yes Richard. What happened there? Why can’t he see Blair?” Traci asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Garrett said.
“Okay, but you still need to find a way to fill that void missing in Blair’s life.”
Relieved to hear that Blair wasn’t gay, Garrett looked at his relationship with Blair through brand new eyes. Before he didn’t think he would be able to bond with the boy if he was gay, but since the doctor thought he was normal, Garrett planned to make a change for the better.
“Doc, I’m going to take your advice; starting from today, I’m going to spend as much time as I can with Blair.”
Dr. French smiled broadly. “That’s good to hear.”
Chapter 39
The first outing that Garrett and Blair had together was out to the basketball courts. When Garrett suggested they go shoot some hoops together, Blair looked leery; claiming that he wasn’t any good at basketball, and once they got out on the basketball courts, Garrett understood why.
The boy couldn’t dribble, shoot or pass. He acted like he was scared of the ball and the kid never made one basket the whole time they were out there. But once Garrett took the time to properly show Blair how to dribble the ball, he picked up the mechanics of the game in no time. The boy was far from one day being Michael Jordan, but Garrett could see potential if they kept practicing from time to time.
“Blair, I’m going to show you how to do a simple lay up.” Garrett dribbled the ball a couple times before taking a few steps, jumped in the air, and gently placed the ball in the basket. Proud of his talent Garrett’s ego swelled to twice his size. “I didn’t get up off the ground as high as I should have, but I must say that was still a nice shot for an ole man who hasn’t played in a while.” He tossed the ball to Blair. “Now you try.”
Blair bounced the ball like an inexperienced ball player.
“You don’t have to do it as good as I did it, but just try. Jump in the air and put the ball in the basket.” Garrett took a couple steps back.
Blair looked up at how high the basket was. He stepped back to the half court line. Ran at top speed towards the basket and at the free throw line the boy soared through the sky, spun around and slid the ball through the net.
“How did you do that?” Amazed, Garrett still couldn’t believe it was Blair who made that shot. “Who taught you how to jump like that? And then you did a spin around in mid-air like they do in the pros.”
“I don’t know.” Blair was glad his dad was interested in him, but he wasn’t ready to share the secrets to his hidden talents.
“Well,” Garrett took the ball from him. “Let’s get home I’m sure Mecca will have dinner waiting for us.”
Once they made it home Garrett confessed to Mecca that
he actually enjoyed spending time with Blair. “Honey, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.” Mecca was glad to see a sparkle in his eye when he referred to Blair. “I hate to admit it but I think that therapist was right. All I needed to do was spend some quality time with the boy and our relationship would grow naturally.”
“I’m glad to see you so happy. I think you worried so much about Blair that it was stressing you out.” Mecca gave Garrett a peck on the lips.
“You should have seen that boy jump.” Garrett sounded excited. “I mean he may not be the best basketball player, but maybe I should have someone training him in the long jump or the high jump.”
“Was he really that good?” Mecca stirred a pot on the stove.
“Mecca, that boy soared through the sky like a bird. I couldn’t believe it.”
A knock at the door interrupted their conversation. Garrett answered. Two women stood outside his door. The first woman gave him a broad smile and reached out her hand to shake his. She wore an all-black leotard with a flimsy sheer pink wrap around her waist. The slippers on her feet were a dead giveaway that she was into ballet. Her windblown gray hair fell haphazardly all over her head. Her hair was cut in small cute layers that framed her face. The style made the sixty year old woman look like she was in her forties. The woman standing next to her wore a multicolored headscarf wrapped tightly around her head. She also wore a leotard except her legs were covered with leggings.
“Hello, I’m MademoiselleDeveraux.” Her thick French accent made it hard for Garrett to decipher what she was saying. “This is Mademoiselle Sullivan. Are you Monsieur Dunn?” Garrett confirmed his identity to the woman who spoke to him like she was in charge. “Great!” She shouted then turned to Mademoiselle Sullivan. “I told you we would find him.” Then she pushed her way into the house.
“I’m sorry.” Mademoiselle Sullivan was obviously an American and apologized for her friend’s rudeness. “She’s not from the United States and apparently they do things differently in France.” She followed Mademoiselle Deveraux. “We’re from the Camden School of Dance.”
