Philadelphia Noir - Carlin Romano [46]
“Whose idea was it?” asks Tom.
“My mom’s, I guess.”
“And why do you think she wants you to go to therapy?”
“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask her,” answers Seth.
There is a touch of defiance in his voice, but it’s nothing Tom hasn’t seen before. Tom lets the room stay silent, giving Seth the space to say more, if he wants. Part of being a psychiatrist is learning to endure these awkward moments.
“I see you brought the board down,” Seth says, after a while.
“I thought we might play a little, if you’re up for it.”
“I’m up for it.”
As it turns out, Tom and Seth are pretty evenly matched. Tom lets the game run out the clock, and when he says, “Time’s up,” Seth doesn’t conceal his disappointment.
That night, before going to sleep, Jackie asks Tom about Seth.
Tom thinks for a moment. “He’s doing all right, I guess. He’s a funny kid.”
“You know, he’s not popular. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t belong to any groups at all. There aren’t many students like that at Friends’ Central. If they’re not popular, they’re into drama or something,” says Jackie.
“He’s into chess,” says Tom.
“Oh really? I didn’t know that.”
“We played today. He’s good. Really good.”
“Hey, you know what you should do?” says Jackie.
“What?” he asks unenthusiastically.
“Switch sides. Turn the board around. Then you’ll have to think like him and he’ll have to think like you.” Pleased with herself, Jackie kisses Tom and turns off the light.
The next time Seth comes in, Tom has the board set up between them on an old card table. The pieces are ready and waiting. They play five moves and then Tom turns the board around. Seth looks at him skeptically but doesn’t ask for an explanation, and Tom doesn’t offer one.
Viewing the board from Seth’s perspective, Tom sees a complex web of attacks and defenses he only half understood from the other side. Seth’s strategy is impressive, and as the board turns back and forth neither gains nor loses much ground.
It isn’t until the third session of this game that Seth begins to open up on his own. Over the next several weeks, he tells Tom, in pieces at first, of an older woman he works for named Marianne. Several months ago, he saw a job posted on the Whole Foods community board for a gardener/general yard worker for a house in the neighborhood, and when he went to ask about it, Marianne hired him on the spot.
Seth even describes the house—a big, gray Victorian with azaleas out front. “She had me paint the columns on the porch pink and green,” he tells Tom.
Immediately, Tom knows the house. There aren’t many Victorian-style houses around, and he can picture that porch. At first he can’t place it, but then he remembers; it’s just around the corner on Windsor Avenue.
It doesn’t take long for Tom to realize that Seth and Marianne are having an affair. Seth is smart and deliberately drops little hints. Initially, it’s just the general way he talks about her, saying things like, “Marianne likes me to come over straight from school,” or Marianne wants this and says that, etc. The more Seth lays it out for him, the more dubious Tom becomes. It’s possible, isn’t it, that Seth’s leading him on, just to stay entertained? Of course, if Seth really is having this affair, the worst thing Tom could do is not believe him, so he puts his doubts aside, confident that the truth will out itself.
From what Tom can gather, the affair is surprisingly sexually mature, and other than the considerable age difference, there is no outward manipulation. But when Seth answers Tom’s questions, he’s using someone else’s words. This is what worries Tom the most—Seth has no perspective. He doesn’t know which way is up and which is down.
Tom thinks very carefully about how to proceed. He considers it to the point of agony, but doesn’t discuss it with Jackie, sure that she’ll overreact. Ultimately he decides that since Seth is almost eighteen, he should keep the information confidential. The circus that it could create would be far more damaging to Seth than if they