The Rescue - Nicholas Sparks [46]
Denise ran her hand through her hair and faced Judy again. “Are you sure you want to hear all of this? It’s kind of a long story.”
Judy reached over and patted Denise on the knee. “Only if you feel like telling me.”
Judy’s earnest expression suddenly reminded Denise of her mother. Strangely, it felt good to tell her about it, and she hesitated only briefly before going on.
“Well, at first the doctors thought he was deaf. I spent weeks taking Kyle to appointments with audiologists and ENTs—you know, ear, nose, and throat specialists—before they found out that he could hear. Then, they thought he was autistic. That diagnosis lasted for about a year—probably the most stressful year of my life. After that came PDD, or pervasive development disorder, which is sort of like autism, only less severe. That too lasted a few months until they’d run more tests on him. Then, they said he was retarded, with ADD—attention deficit disorder—thrown in for good measure. It wasn’t until maybe nine months ago that they finally settled on this diagnosis.”
“It must have been so hard on you. . . .”
“You can’t imagine how hard it was. They tell you something awful about your child, and you go through all these stages—disbelief, anger, grief, and finally acceptance. You learn everything you can about it—you research and read and talk to whoever you can—and just when you’re ready to confront it head-on, they change their minds and the whole thing starts all over again.”
“Where was the father during all of this?”
Denise shrugged, an almost guilty expression on her face. “The father wasn’t around. Suffice it to say, I hadn’t expected to get pregnant. Kyle was an ‘oops,’ if you know what I mean.”
She paused again, and the two of them watched Kyle in silence. Judy seemed neither surprised nor shocked by the revelation, nor did her expression register any judgment. Denise cleared her throat.
“After Kyle was born, I took a leave of absence from the school where I was teaching. My mom had died, and I wanted to spend the first year or so with the baby. But after all this started happening, I couldn’t go back to work. I was shuttling him all day long to doctors and evaluation centers and therapists until I finally came up with a therapy program that we could do at home. None of that left me with enough time for a full-time job. Working with Kyle is full-time. I’d inherited this house, but I couldn’t sell it, and eventually the money just ran out.”
She glanced at Judy, a rueful expression on her face.
“So I guess the short answer to your question is that I had to move here out of necessity, so that I could keep working with Kyle.”
When she finished, Judy stared at her before finally patting her on the knee again. “Pardon the expression, but you’re a helluva mother. Not many people would make those kinds of sacrifices.”
Denise watched her son play in the dirt. “I just want him to get better.”
“From what you’ve told me, he sounds like he already has.” She let that sink in before leaning back in her chair and continuing. “You know, I remember watching Kyle when you were using the computer in the library, but never once did the thought occur to me that he was having any problems at all. He seemed like every other little boy there, except that he was probably better behaved.”
“But he still has trouble speaking.”
“So did Einstein and Teller, but they turned out to be the greatest physicists in history.”
“How would you know about their speech problems?” Though Denise knew (she’d read nearly everything on the subject), she was surprised—and impressed—that Judy knew it as well.
“Oh, you’d be amazed at the amount of trivia I’ve picked up over the years. I’m like a vacuum cleaner with that stuff, don’t ask me why.”
“You should go on Jeopardy!”
“I would, but that Alex Trebek is so cute, I’d probably forget everything I know as soon as he said hello. I’d just stare at him the whole time, trying to figure out a way to get him to kiss me, like that Richard Dawson did on Family Feud.”
“What would