As if I had caught them doing something wrong, Mrs. Camden followed me into the kitchen to explain. Myr
a and My Faith were sitting at the kitchen table, enjoying some of Myra’s imported British tea. Myra smiled when she saw that I had eaten most of the food. We all turned when Mrs. Camden stepped in, too.
She looked at everyone when she spoke, but I knew it was mostly for my benefit. “Dr. Patrick thinks it will be very helpful for William to get a sense of the Arnold family, the warmth in this home. It will help build his confidence.”
“William,” I said disdainfully, and looked at Myra especially. “Are you calling him William, too?”
“We’re all just trying to do what we can to help him recuperate, love.” She smiled. “My granddad used to say, ‘Call me what you want, but don’t call me late for dinner.’ ”
My Faith laughed, and Mrs. Camden smiled and said, “Wise advice.”
“Did you ever ask him if his real name was Mickey?” I demanded.
“Mickey?” My Faith said.
“She never told you two? I heard him say it when he was having a dream.”
“I discussed it with Dr. Patrick,” Mrs. Camden said. “He doesn’t react well to the name. Whoever it is revives very bad memories for him. It’s definitely not his name, Clara Sue.”
“William’s definitely not his name, either,” I said, and put the dish on the counter so hard that I almost broke it.
“Well, please don’t refer to him as the poisoned boy, Clara Sue. If and when he hears that, it’ll just reinforce the terrible things done to him.”
“We never called Willie William very much,” Myra said. “It’s almost like a different name.”
“Not to me,” I said. “His teachers called him William, and I heard Grandpa call him that many times.”
They were all quiet.
I stood there for a moment, thinking, and then turned to Mrs. Camden and asked, “What did he do when my grandfather showed him pictures of Willie and me?”
“He became very sad. We could see it, so your grandfather quickly moved on to other pictures and his trophies.”
“Didn’t he say anything?”
“No.”
“Don’t you think it’s weird that he still won’t talk much after all this time, even when you’re being so nice to him?”
“There have been cases of prisoners of war who didn’t speak for months and months after they were freed. It takes a lot of tender loving care.”
“Yes, I know. Like easing him into a warm bath,” I said disdainfully.
Both Myra and My Faith scowled. I didn’t care. Maybe they would stop talking about him in front of me.
“We’re thinking of taking him for a ride tomorrow,” Mrs. Camden said. “Dr. Patrick thinks it would be a very good thing. New scenery might revive his memory. Would you be interested in going?”
“Didn’t you hear? I’m under house arrest,” I said, and walked out past her. When I reached Grandpa Arnold’s office this time and looked in, I saw that he was taking some of the models of his trucks off the shelves and showing them to the boy. He never let Willie play with those. He bought him different ones. I saw him put one into the boy’s lap. The boy looked up at him with admiration, and my grandfather smiled. When he looked toward me this time, he kept his smile.
It won’t be long, I thought, before he loves him more than he loved Willie and especially more than he loves me. Forget about trading even false acceptance for Grandpa rescinding his punishment, I thought. I wasn’t that good a liar.
The boy saw where Grandpa was looking and turned to me. Suddenly, he smiled, too. I believed it was a smile of self-satisfaction. He was showing me that he was winning his place in my grandfather’s heart despite me. But I was sure that Mrs. Camden, Dr. Patrick, and everyone else in this house would tell me that he was just reaching out to me, hoping that I would like him, maybe even love him like a brother.
Never, I thought. Someone had poisoned him, and now he was poisoning almost everyone in this house. But he wasn’t poisoning me. You’re all too stupid to see it, I wanted to shout, but I swallowed back the words and returned to my room.
I tried doing some of my reading for English class, but I was having too much trouble concentrating and found myself rereading the same pages. I hadn’t closed my door completely, so I heard Mrs. Camden and my grandfather bringing the boy up to Willie’s room. The two of them were laughing. I listened for the boy’s laughter, too, but I didn’t hear it. They took him into his room, and Mrs. Camden started to prepare him for sleep. While she did that, my grandfather came to my room.
“Dorian said she told you we’re taking William for a ride tomorrow. It looks like it’s going to be a very nice day. We thought after lunch, we’d go toward Richmond. Dr. Patrick thinks it would be beneficial to get him out for a while. She suspects he wasn’t permitted to go anywhere or do much before. So if you would like to come along . . .”