And she knew exactly what she was going to write about. It had practically hit her over the head the second she saw Dr. Reed’s ad in the paper. She needed to find Solomon, charm him, and counsel him back to health. Then, she’d record it all in her essay to Woodlawn and be well on her way to securing her place among the greatest psychological minds of the twenty-first century. They’d be naming a building after her by the time she had grandkids.
But, she’d need to get started soon if she wanted to have guaranteed success. Especially since, by the sound of it, she could be dealing with a full-blown agoraphobe. That isn’t something a person can conquer in a few weeks. Lisa would need several months with him to make the kind of progress she wanted—and she was already nearing the end of her junior year. That would allow just enough time to get her application in early. She wouldn’t settle for being wait-listed and she wasn’t about to apply to the third best psych program in the country. This was where she belonged and it was where she’d end up, no matter what.
“I’m going to write about my cousin,” Lisa said.
“The one in the place?”
“Institution,” she corrected. “I met him once. He gets out sometimes. Gets to come home for a weekend or two a year. It’s weird. I’ve always wanted to talk to him or try to get to know him. I never do though.”
“I’d be careful there,” Clark advised. “No telling what could be wrong if he has to live away from everyone like that.”
“No telling,” she said. “But maybe I’ll try to talk to him anyway.”
Despite her interest in psychology, Lisa wasn’t really planning to talk to her cousin, or anyone in her family for that matter. She could barely stand being in a room with her mom and her dad’s birthday cards quit coming when she turned nine. She just needed a good cover so Clark wouldn’t find out about Solomon. Not yet, anyway. You don’t go telling your boyfriend that you need to spend a few months with another guy, especially one with a history of emotional instability and public meltdowns. She’d find the right time. Ignorance was bliss to Clark, so she was just doing him a favor anyway. He could wait a little longer to find out about her project. After all, it seemed like he really liked waiting on things.
FIVE
SOLOMON REED
By most people’s standards, Solomon was a pretty weird kid. There was the agoraphobic thing, sure, but there were other things, too. He had impossibly weird eating habits, refusing to eat anything green, without exception, and having a substantial fear of coconut. Most days, he walked around half-clothed with a persistent case of bed head and a red line across his stomach where he’d rested the edge of his laptop while he did his schoolwork or streamed movies online. And, despite being terrible at video games, he’d ask his dad to play them just so he could watch, for hours and hours.
Oh, and he said his thoughts aloud sometimes. Not all the time, but often enough so his parents expected to round a corner and hear him saying something that made no sense to anyone else. The day after his mom met Lisa Praytor, she walked into his room at just the right time.
“Antwerp,” he said, sitting at his desk and not realizing she was behind him.
“Who’re you calling a twerp, twerp?” she said.
He spun around slowly in his chair until he was facing her. His cheeks were a little red, but they’d be back to normal soon enough. He spent a lot of time with his parents, so there were few things left that could embarrass him.
“You know that new patient I was telling you about? The one from your school?”
“Lisa something?”
“Praytor,” she said. “She sure was asking a lot about you.”
“Well, it seems like she’s all you can talk about lately. Are you trying to say I don’t have perfect molars? Are you going to trade me in?”
“I haven’t ruled it out.”
“And she was asking a lot about me? That’s creepy, Mom.”
“She wasn’t creepy at all. A little nosy, I guess. But not creepy. It’s nice to know someone out there’s thinking about you, isn’t it?”
Solomon didn’t really know what to say. So someone out there had been thinking about him. Great. What was he supposed to do with that—invite her over for brunch?
“I guess.”
“It wouldn’t hurt you to have a friend or two, you know?”
“We’re not friends? You’re saying we’re not friends?” he joked, raising his voice and using a mobster accent.
“I’m saying your only friends shouldn’t be middle aged and they certainly shouldn’t be your parents.”
“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” he said.
“Oh my God.” She grabbed both sides of his face. “You’re as hopeless as your dad.”
Valerie Reed lived with older and younger versions of the same man—a minimalist introvert who never talked about his feelings and obsessed over ridiculous things. She managed to make it through their weekly viewings of old science fiction films and the in-depth conversations that would always follow. But she did like to joke that watching movies with them was “like pulling teeth.” Get it? Of course you do.
“You know, you could probably reconnect with some of your old school friends online,” she continued.
“Why would I want to do that, Mom?”
“For fun. I don’t know.”