Free The Belief in Angels by J. Dylan Yates Page B

comfortable.”
    Mrs. Dougherty is trying to scare Wendy with the principal, but I know Wendy isn’t afraid.
    Nobody scares her. Not even my father.
    Wendy is wicked smart and belongs to a club for Einstein geniuses. Sometimes it takes me and my brothers a while to figure out her tricks, but after a while, we do. We’re not stupid; we were all above average in intelligence according to the test she gave us, but we don’t have genius IQs like her.
    “It’s not a good idea to coddle children when they injure themselves, you know,” Wendy says.
    “Excuse me?” Mrs. Dougherty says sharply.
    “It’s called negative reinforcement. Read Skinner. It’s a form of operant conditioning. If you give kids attention when they become sick, they relate the injury to attention and manifest illness with more frequency. Surely you learned a bit of childhood psych development when you got your nursing degree? I mean you do work as a school nurse!” Wendy’s voice rings out in the room.
    I think Mrs. Dougherty’s head might pop off she gets so angry-red in her face.
    “Mrs. Finn, I do know quite a bit about children, their behavior, and their needs. Your job as a parent is to make sure her needs are met. Bringing her to the doctor to be checked out isn’t spoiling her, it’s protecting her. Your daughter needs your attention right now.”
    “I’m not sure,” Wendy says. “I read Erikson, and I think he’s been interpreted in too linear a fashion. The stages of development aren’t necessarily sequential. There’ve been studies that show abandoned children manage to raise themselves in the wild. It follows that children, given food and shelter and surrounded with many more tools for survival, can raise themselves without the interference of adults who think they know what they’re doing.”
    I have no idea what Wendy is talking about, but it sort of seems like she’s winning. I figure the psychology stuff she’s studying at Northeastern must be good.
    Mrs. Dougherty says, “Children that have been cross-fostered by wild animals, like
wolves,
sometimes manage to survive in the wild. However, they fail to develop key human components like language or social skills, regardless of how long they’re schooled following their abandonment. Surely your daughter deserves a better chance at survival than the Wild Boy of Aveyron, Mrs. Finn?”
    Wendy quiets down. I don’t know who the Wild Boy is, but I know I don’t want to end up like him even if Wendy thinks it might be a better way to raise kids. But she agrees to come and shows up in the Country Squire a few minutes later. She beeps her horn so long and loud I hear it inside the nurse’s office. I jump out of the cot and onto my feet quickly and I make myself dizzy. I have to sit down again.
    “Let’s go slow, Julianne,” Mrs. Daugherty says.
    She puts her arm around my shoulders, helps me up, and walks me outside to Wendy’s car. On the way out to the car she says, “If you ever want to come down to my office and talk, I won’t mind. You can talk about anything you like and we can keep it private, okay?”
    She means well, but I’ve decided adults aren’t to be trusted about anything they say. She and Mr. Bellami are likely in cahoots to get us taken away from Wendy and have her put in jail. Wendy told us what would happen if she went to jail.
    Orphanages.
    She told us she came from an orphanage before she was adopted and about how awful and mean the people were. I figure she’s telling the truth about that one since she’s mean and they must have made her that way. She never talks about it, either, and we’re not supposed to ask my grandparents about it. It must have been horrible.
    “Your mother should take you to the doctor and have him check you. If she decides not to, shut the curtains to keep it dark and lie down in your bed, but don’t fall asleep. I’ll tell her this when we talk,” Mrs. Dougherty says.
    She walks me over to the car and stands with me