Free Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson Page B

about Tess go a little bit beyond that. I had a look at her records from Crossbank.”
    Ah, Marguerite thought. Well, that was inevitable. Raking these old coals again. “Tess had some problems last spring. But that’s all over now.”
    “This was during the process of the divorce?”
    “Yes.”
    “She was seeing a therapist at that time, right?”
    “Dr. Leinster, at Crossbank. Yes.”
    “Is she seeing anyone now?”
    “Here at Blind Lake?” Marguerite shook her head decisively. “No.”
    “Have you thought about it? We’ve got people on staff who can provide absolutely first-rate counseling.”
    “I’m sure you do. I don’t feel it’s necessary.”
    Fleischer paused. He tapped a pencil against his desk. “Back at Crossbank, Tess had some kind of hallucinatory episode, is that correct?”
    “No, Mr. Fleischer, that’s not correct. Tess was lonely and she talked to herself. She had a made-up friend she called Mirror Girl, and there were times when it was a little hard for her to distinguish between reality and imagination. That’s a problem, but it’s not a
hallucination
. She was tested for temporal-lobe epilepsy and a dozen other neurological conditions. The tests were uniformly negative.”
    “According to her file, she was diagnosed with—”
    “Asperger’s Syndrome, yes, but that’s not a terribly uncommon condition. She has a few tics, she was language-delayed, and she’s not very good at making friends, but we’ve known that for some years now. She’s lonely, yes, and I believe her loneliness contributed to the problem at Crossbank.”
    “I think she’s lonely here, too.”
    “I’m sure you’re right. Yes, she’s lonely and disoriented. Wouldn’t you be? Parents divorced, a new place to live, plus all the usual cruelties a child her age endures. You don’t have to tell me about it. I see it every day. In her body language, in her eyes.”
    “And you don’t think therapy would help her deal with that?”
    “I don’t mean to be dismissive, but therapy hasn’t been a huge success. Tessa’s been on and off Ritalin and a host of other drugs, and none of them has done her any good. Quite the opposite. That should be in the file too.”
    “Therapy needn’t involve medication. Sometimes just the talking helps.”
    “But it didn’t help Tess. If anything it made her feel more unique, more alone, more oppressed.”
    “Did she tell you that?”
    “She didn’t have to.” Marguerite discovered her palms were sweating. Her voice had tightened up, too.
That defensive whine of yours
, Ray used to call it. “What’s the point, Mr. Fleischer?”
    “Again, I’m sorry if this seems intrusive. I like to have some background on my students, especially if they’re having trouble. I think it makes me a better teacher. I guess it also makes me sound like an interrogator. I apologize.”
    “I know Tess has been slow with her written work, but—”
    “She comes to class, but there are days when she’s, I don’t know how to describe it—emotionally absent. She stares out the window. Sometimes I call her name and she doesn’t respond. She whispers to herself. That doesn’t make her unique, much less disturbed, but it does make her difficult to teach. All I’m saying is, maybe we can help.”
    “Ray’s been here, hasn’t he?”
    Mr. Fleischer blinked. “I’ve talked to your husband—your ex-husband—on a couple of occasions, but that’s not unusual.”
    “What did he tell you? That I’m neglecting her? That she complains about being lonely when she’s with me?”
    Fleischer didn’t respond, but his wide-eyed look gave him away. Direct hit. Fucking Ray!
    “Look,” Marguerite said, “I appreciate your concern, and I share it, but you should also know that Ray isn’t happy with the custody arrangements and this isn’t the first time he’s tried to set me up, make me look like a bad parent. So let me guess: he came in here and told you how
reluctant
he was to raise the