“Enough!” she finally says.
No more tests. No more doctors. She packs a few belongings and says good-bye to the noisy confusion of the city, ignoring her husband’s anger. She will take Joey to a place without labels, a place of acceptance and peace.
Their cottage is within walking distance of a sunny wildflower meadow and a thickly fringed woodland. The perfect place to raise a seven-year old. Every day she reads to him from the special books. “Fluffy loves her fuzzy ball, and her food bowl, but she doesn’t like to be touched.” Joey gives no sign that he sees the picture of the adorable, but different, kitten. “Eli hugs his yellow frisbee, his best friend.” Joey doesn’t respond to Eli’s story. The real-life yellow frisbee she hoped might become a friend lies on the ground, unnoticed.
Once, when he was three, she thought she saw a glimmer of life in his eyes. Once, he tried to speak. “Mumum”. She was overjoyed, but Joey’s father snorted in disgust. Now, in their new home of light and love and fragrance and flowers, she hopes to free the spirit she once glimpsed inside her son’s sturdy body.
They walk in the woods, where she shows him the shy violets. “They don’t speak. They’re just beautiful,” she tells him. “And that’s more than enough.”
She leads him through the meadow, following a corridor of sunlight. He stumbles, but she’s the one who collapses into the flowers, unable to hold back tears. “Joey, my love, where are you? Won’t you come out and play?” When she raises her head, Joey is gone.
She knows her son. He likes dark places where he can hide. She tiptoes into the woodland, then suddenly stops. Joey is walking toward her, away from the safety of the woods. He holds out a fistful of clumsily picked violets, raises his eyes to hers and tries to speak. His syllables are slow and painful, but she understands him perfectly. “Mum..um..um?” “Yes, my darling. Oh yes.”
He doesn’t pull away when she holds out her arms.
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Learn more about the contest which inspired this story: Fleur 2020-03 – Violet