disclaimer: USA Network owns Covert Affairs and it's characters, etc. Not me.
The Glencoe Andersons
One-shots and brief story arcs from Auggie's childhood, and perhaps a bit beyond (we'll see). Won't necessarily be written in chronological order. A companion piece to "The Unexpected Visitor." Suggestions for scenes you want to see are welcome, but don't be upset (please) if I don't take them.
The Eye Doctor
xxXxx (December, 1985) xxXxx
"So what seems to be the problem today?" Dr. Brown asked kindly.
"Well, Aidan's teachers have been saying that he's squinting a lot at the board, and once they mentioned it - August, leave that alone - Once they mentioned it, I realized that he does like to sit fairly close to the TV when it's on," Rita answered, settling Aidan on her lap while Auggie stood to the side, looking curiously around the small eye doctor's office.
"Ok, anybody in the family wear glasses, history of eye disease, anything like that?"
"No, that's what's so strange to me. Nobody so much as wears glasses, on either side of the family, except for I think one of my great uncles."
Dr. Brown nodded, making a note on the clipboard he held in his lap. "Anything else that might be relevant?"
"Well," Rita hesitated and blushed slightly, "It has been mentioned to me that it may be some sort of… that he may be looking for extra attention, their father died just about a year ago. But I thought it would be better to have it checked out, just in case."
The doctor nodded and smiled sympathetically. "Well, let's have a look then." He turned to the boys. "Which one of you is Aidan?" Both boys turned to look back at him with identically wide-eyed looks, and the one hanging half off of his mother's lap slightly raised his hand.
"My, but you two look quite a lot alike. You must be identical!" He exclaimed in a kind, kid-friendly voice.
Aidan frowned, and August piped up, "We're not. We're fa- fer- ferternal. But people mix us up a lot."
"Ah, I see," the doctor said, and gave them a knowing wink. "All right, Aidan, why don't you hop up on the chair there."
About an hour later, Aidan was allowed to scoot off the examination chair for the last time. He joined his brother in a corner of the room, playing with a plastic, anatomical model of an eye. While they quietly occupied themselves, Dr. Brown addressed Rita.
"Well, it does look as though he is having some genuine, but mild, trouble with his vision. It is not presenting perfectly typically, but I believe he will benefit from wearing corrective lenses. As I said, his prescription seems fairly mild, but we will need to watch his progression. Usually, with children, we perform an eye exam about once a year, and that moves to once every other year when they get older. Children's eyes frequently worsen over time, but with the lack of family history his prescription may remain very mild."
Rita nodded. "Ok. How do we go about this? I've never had glasses myself, I'm not sure how it works."
Dr. Brown smiled at her. "Not to worry. You just bring this prescription to the optometrist down the hall. She'll help you pick out a pair of frames, and they'll be ready in a few days."
xxXxx
"Mommy?"
"Yes, August?" Rita asked somewhat impatiently, glancing down at the six-year-old boy tugging at her pant leg while she tried to ready herself for the first day of her class. She was glad to be finally working on finishing her nursing degree, but between her mother's obvious disapproval (really, it was practically the 21st century, there was nothing wrong with a woman working when she already had children) and the craziness of trying to get five boys to calm down enough that she could safely leave them with said mother, she was feeling a bit frazzled.
"Mommy, I have to tell you something."
"What is it, August? Mommy is in a hurry." She took a better look at her youngest boy, and noticed his face was uncharacteristically serious. She paused and knelt down in front of him.
"Aidan told me not to tell, but…" He glanced over his shoulder, and Rita looked up and noticed for the first time that her oldest boy, the twelve-year-old Aaron, was standing in the doorway. He encouraged August with a nod.
"But what, August?" Rita gently asked.
"Well, Aidan said he's not supposed to squint anymore, he said it was bad, but we were practicing math, and he was squinting and he still couldn't see it, I don't think. He got it wrong but then he knew it once I said the numbers out loud. And he didn't want me to tell you, but you said you wanted to know. Is A in trouble?" All of this tumbled out of Auggie's mouth in a rush, although Rita was amused to notice how carefully he pronounced the word 'squint.'
"Thank you for telling me that, August. No, Aidan is not in trouble. But I need to know these things so that we can help him. You remember a few months ago, before Christmas, when we went to the eye doctor, and Aidan got his glasses? It will just be like that again. Maybe not fun, but he'll see better afterwards." She stood back up, then added, "We'll talk about it later when I get home, but in the meantime, mind your Nana, and your Papa when he gets home."
xxXxx
"Aidan, why are you rubbing your eyes? Are your glasses bothering you?" Rita asked as she set the fruit salad down on the table. It was two months later, and the family was helping set up for the annual neighborhood 4th-of-July block party.
"No, Mommy." The six-year-old ceased his rubbing and squinted up at her, his glasses slightly askew. "The sun hurts my eyes."
"Oh, yes honey, it is bright out today. Why don't you go grab one of your baseball caps?"
The little boy nodded and scampered off, keeping his head ducked and still rubbing at his eyes.
Thirty minutes later, as the festivities were beginning, Rita realized that she had never seen Aidan re-emerge from the house. Her three older boys were all out on the street, playing with their respective groups of friends, but her twins were nowhere to be seen. She excused herself from the conversation she had been having with one of the neighbors and ventured back to the house to search for the boys.
She found them playing in their bedroom. Aidan had evidently found his cap for it was on his head.
She stood, hands on her hips, in the doorway. "August, Aidan, what are you two doing inside all alone? The whole family is outside at the party."
They both startled, and looked up at her. Aidan looked somewhat sheepish, but Auggie looked protective.
"The sun was hurting Aidan, so we came in here," he said matter-of-factly.
"Aidan, that was the point of the cap, didn't you try going back outside?" Rita admonished, somewhat exasperated.
Aidan nodded quickly. "I did, but it still hurt, so we came up here."
Rita sighed and debated the best course of action. She wasn't sure that she wanted to drag them unwillingly to the party, although she had a feeling that Aidan would be distracted from the bright sun fairly quickly by the neighborhood kids. She supposed she could leave them in the house, although it was certainly not ideal. Six years old was a bit young to be unsupervised, but the family would be just outside, and she could send someone to check on them periodically. Or perhaps she should stay with them, and try to persuade them to come back out a little while later?
As she thought, she watched the boys resume playing. She noticed that August immediately threw himself back into their game enthusiastically, but that Aidan seemed somewhat more hesitant. It took her several moments to realize that Aidan was not actually hesitant about playing, but rather kept pausing to bring the pieces close to his face and examine them briefly, positioning them just-so in front of his eyes and then resuming the game.
Surprised by this revelation, she spoke somewhat sharply. "Aidan! Are you having trouble seeing again?"
Aidan looked up again, even more sheepish than before. He nodded, obviously reluctant.
Rita walked over to them and knelt down. "Aidan, it's ok, you need to tell me if you're having so much trouble seeing. I know if it happens very gradually you might not notice, but if you're having trouble seeing your toys the same was Auggie does you need to tell me."
Aidan's lower lip trembled slightly. "I thought it was bad if I squinted?"
Rita smiled. The twins had for some reason latched onto that word. "Honey, it's only bad because it means you are having trouble seeing. That's not your fault, I just need to know. Then we can get you new glasses that will help you see better. Just like two months ago, remember? Then you won't have to squint."
"But, Mommy," this time it was Auggie who piped up, "A still squinted after he got his new glasses."
"I know he is now, honey, but he could see better right after," Rita tried to explain, but Auggie was insistent.
"No, Mommy, he still squinted right after. A said it just made things look weird and small."
"Ok." Rita decided to stay calm after this declaration. She wouldn't worry until they had seen the eye doctor. "Well that is something that I need to know, and that the doctor needs to know. Do you understand? There is nothing wrong with not being able to see well, or squinting, or any of that. The only thing that is wrong, the only thing that makes me upset, is that you did not tell me. Understand?" The twins nodded. "You have to tell me so that the adults can work on how to help you. If we don't have all of the information, then we can't help you."
They nodded again, and Rita smiled at them. "Now, can I join you? What game are you playing?"
This sufficiently excited and distracted her two youngest boys. Mommy didn't get to play with them that often, so it was always an exciting treat.
xxXxx
Unfortunately, the discoveries of the 4th of July did not lead to immediate answers. It took multiple referrals, and several months, before Rita was able to drive home from a doctor's office in Chicago with a definitive diagnosis for her son.
Aidan had juvenile retinoschisis, a relatively rare eye disease that caused splitting and tiny cysts to form between the layers of the retina. It was genetic, so each of her other sons had needed to be tested, but somehow all but Aidan had beaten the odds and showed no sign of the disease (although they would require regular eye exams into their 20's in case it manifested later, though the specialists believed that unlikely).
The specialist had told her that the disease was progressive, but that its exact course could vary quite a bit from person to person, and was difficult to predict with certainty. The primary commonalities were that vision would worsen into a patient's late teens or early 20's before stabilizing, and likely not worsen again until the patient's 50's or 60's. Some people with retinoschisis retained enough vision to be able to drive, some eventually became legally blind, most eventually required large print or magnifiers to read. It was uncommon to go completely blind, although it could happen in rare cases. Unfortunately, glasses would not help with this kind of loss of visual acuity, and with the rapid progression Aidan had experienced so far, his prognosis was not good. He would likely eventually experience a fairly severe vision loss, although the specialist reiterated that it was impossible to say with certainty.
Aidan already had what the doctors considered 'low vision,' and he had what was essentially a blind spot in the lower right visual field of his right eye. Apparently, peripheral vision losses such as this were less common, but not impossible, in retinoschisis. And although corrective lenses would not help Aidan, the doctors had suggested a set of non-prescription glasses with transition lenses to help with the photophobia he was experiencing.
By the time Rita arrived at home and her boys had piled out of the car, her mind had ceased reeling from the shock of all of the new information being thrown at her and had begun to process what she had learned. Her son was going blind, that was the simplest way to put it. But as she followed her rowdy boys into the house and watched the twins race up the stairs to compare Christmas lists with their older brothers, she realized that they would get through it. No, she decided that they would get through it. Aidan would need some help, certainly, and some careful watching and parenting, but he was still just a seven-year old boy. He didn't even truly comprehend that something was different about him yet, and fortunately the other kids in his and August's first-grade class didn't seem to have figured that out yet either.
She sighed as she headed to the living room. Now she just had to face the questions of her oh-so-proper parents.
A/N: So what did you think? Reviews please!