Saving Richie Novak-Part 2-The Girl with the Quadratic Equations
Richie was still in the hospital the following week. He was gaining strength and was anxious to get out and go home. .He tried to get them to discharge him, but Joe was adamant that he wait at least another week. He was allowed to leave his room, however, and he was happy for that.
One day while he was resting a young woman bounded into his room. "Red. Red! Make it stop, make it stop!" She ran to the corner of the room and crouched down on the floor.
"Nine hundred ninety nine, nine hundred ninety eight, nine hundred-"Richie peered over at her and said "Miss, can I help you?"
She didn't answer. She just kept counting down the numbers, rocking back and forth.
Richie understood the signs. He knew an autistic person when he saw one. He knew because he was slightly autistic himself. A fact that he didn't know until he went to prison and they did testing on him. He later learned that his father had known about it, and that's why he doted on Richie the way he did. He never let Annie or Richie know when they were growing up for fear Annie would use it against him. Richie had been furious when he learned his father knew of his disorder and never told him. He was also never treated for it. In prison he learned about some of the causes of his low tolerance for frustration and pain, as well as his fear of being crowded or touched when he didn't want to be He learned why he sometimes felt disconnected from other people, and why he found it hard to feel attached to someone. Even when he desperately wanted to be. The disorder sometimes made you feel as though you were suffocating when people got too close. By the look of the young woman on the floor, her disorder was more severe than his. But he did understand what was happening. So for a long time he said nothing. He just allowed her the space to calm down. When it seemed like she might be able to listen to him (if not actually talk to him) he edged his way off the bed and crouched down near her.
"Hey" he said softly. "Hey, can I help you"? She continued rocking back and forth but the counting slowed down, and she seemed to be aware of his presence. Richie took this as a good sign and continued. "Can you tell me what happened? Did somebody scare you by-wearing red? Did somebody try and touch you?"
She stopped rocking, and very slowly nodded her head. "Red. Too much red. Touch-no touch. I asked them not to touch me, but they weren't listening. They -they didn't hear me And they had red-red roses they were holding. They thought I was somebody else. I don't know who".
Richie pieced together what the young woman was saying. Some people at the hospital mistook her for someone else and started touching her. Apparently they either had flowers in their hands.or they tried to give her flowers. And they were red-evidently a color that causedher to freak out
"Can you tell me your name?" he asked as quietly as he could.
"Lily". She said after a moment.
"Lily" he repeated. "That's a beautiful name for a beautiful woman" he smiled at her and was glad when she smiled back, just a little. "My name is Richie" he added.
"You know, Lily you don't have to be scared. Those people didn't want to hurt you. They just thought you were someone they knew and wanted to show you that they loved and missed you. Do you know any one like that? Someone you'd be so happy to see that you'd give them flowers and hug them"?
"I can hug my Dad once in awhile and it doesn't hurt. But sometimes I think it'll hurt when someone touches me,so I get scared"
"Did somebody hurt you, Lily"?
"Well, one time someone tried, but my husband killed him".
"Your -husband?"
"Yes, I was married for eight months, three weeks and four days. My dad didn't approve of Jonathan, so he had the marriage annulled. I didn't want to leave Jon but then I found out that we were different and he didn't let me know. So I left him".
Richie blinked a few times, trying to process all this. He cleared his throat. "Your husband killed someone"?
"Yes, Terry. He was a bad man. He tried to hurt me. He was Annie's husband. Jonathan killed him before he could hurt me".
"Annie's husband?" What the hell was going on in this town?
"Annie, the one who's married to Ryan Lavery"?
Lily shook her head yes.
"Well, than Ryan's brother is your ex?"
She nodded again.
"Well, I'm kind of related to Jon myself,Lilly." Much to Jonathan's consternation, Richie was sure.
Lily's eyes widened. "Really, how"?
"Annie is my sister." He said. "I'm not really related to him, but he is my brother in law. Like Ryan is."
Lily smiled at him. "Ryan is a nice man. He loves Jonathan, and he loves Annie".
"Yeah, he's great" said Richie, inwardly wanting to grab something and throw it. Although he and Ryan had made some improvements in their relationship due to Emma, Ryan still had a suspicious attitude where Richie was concerned. Few things were more annoying than Ryan Lavery when he was in "hero" mode. Unless it was people worshipping Ryan Lavery.
"He helped Jonathan when he was sick. He used to be bad, but it's because he had a tumor".
"Yes, I heard about that". Mr. Wonderful aiding a psychotic. And trying to get Richie put away because Ryan thought he was one.
"Listen,Lily? Would you like to try something"? She nodded.
"Ok. Close your eyes and think about all the people who make you feel safe. Think of each person and imagine they're doing whatever they do to make you feel safe when you're scared. Can you try that"? Lilly nodded again. She closed her eyes and started naming people. As she did so, Richie would ask what each one did to make her safe, and he would repeat it with her. When she came to Ryan she said"Ryan makes me laugh".
"Yeah, I could see why he would ".
"He does! He's very funny."
Richie could think of many words hewould use to describe Ryan, but funny wasn't one of them. He thought it best not to upset Lily, however so he just let her tell him how funny Ryan was.
Sure enough, she started to calm down. Richie could understand that. He got sleepy listening to Ryan's self important droning. But he had to grudgingly admire the way he dealt with Lily. It seemed he did know how to talk to her, and if he was honest he had to admit that some of what Lily was saying Ryan told her was funny. "It's too bad I never see that side of him" Richie thought. "I might actually like him".
A man came to the door that Richie recognized as the attorney who was at the courthouse the day Ryan and the spy guy-Aidan?-were arrested for stringing him up on a noose.
Predictably, the man was alarmed to see Lily with Richie. "What the hell are you doing with my daughter"? He demanded.
"Shit" thought Richie. "What do you think I'm doing "? Aloud he said "Mr. whatever your name is-Lily came in here in a panic. I think you can probably see that? I'm just trying to calm her down. Make her feel safe".
"What do you know about someone like my daughter"?
"I know enough not to speak about her as though she's either a child or not really in the room. Look, I have enough trouble right now dealing with my illness and my family; I really don't need any further aggravation or accusations thrown at me. So,please just leave".
"Lily-sweetie are you ok"?
Lily had begun rocking back and forth at the sound of anger in their voices,though they both were mindful to keep their voices down.
"Richie helped me when I got scared. I was frightened by the people who tried to touch me and give me red flowers. He made me think about people who make me feel safe and how they do that. It worked, I felt better. But the two of you are angry-your mouths are turned down and you and Richie have angry eyes."
The two men immediately started to talk at the same time, each reassuring her that they weren't angry and everything was fine. Lily smiled at their obvious attempt to make her feel better and the tension was somewhat broken.
"Lily" Richie said with a smile. "You know what I do when I'm scared or nervous? Math equations in my head."
"Really,what kind"? She asked in surprise. "I do that, too".
"I do quadratic equations. Do you like those"?
Lily beamed at that, and she nodded. "I can do those, and I like them. Do you really do them when you're upset"? Richie nodded. She looked at him quizzically.
"Do you have autism spectrum disorder, too? I never knew anyone else who wanted to do quadratic equations when they were upset."
Richie paused and looked at Jack who was scowling slightly less than before. "Yes, I have a form of autism spectrum disorder. It's not the same as yours. But I do have it, and I can understand why you feel the way you do. And I know how you can cope with it".
Lily looked at him in amazement and smiled. "You're the first person I ever met who was not in my school who had autism spectrum disorder. Can you be touched?""Yes, I can. But it depends on who is touching me and under what circumstances. I don't like crowds, and people crowding me make me start doing math problems in my head!"
"Can you have sex"? Lily asked in her usual blunt fashion.
Richie grinned and Jack looked at Lily in horror. "Lily that's not our business! Now, come on and let's leave Richie alone so he can rest." He looked at Richie and said "I'm sorry I yelled. I get frantic sometimes with Lily. I apologize. And thank you for helping her".
Richie was stunned. He couldn't remember anyone in Pine Valley apologizing to him for anything. "That's ok". He said to Jack.
To Lily he said" You can come back anytime and talk to me about equations or anything else you'd like. I enjoyed meeting you".
Lily blushed." I enjoyed meeting you.too. Do you mind if I call you Richard instead of Richie"?
Richie smiled again and said" Lily, you can call me whatever you like".
"Goodbye, Richard".
"Goodbye, Lily".
When Lily left Richie went back to his bed and pulled the covers up to his chin. He closed his eyes and thought about Lily. The first person other than his niece who liked him. It figured it would be someone with the same disorder as him,albeit in a much more severe form. He thought how innocent and pure Lily was. He knew it was a long time since he'd been that innocent, if ever. There was always so much anger and fear going on inside him that he didn't understand, and never was taught to cope with when he was growing up. He thought Lily was lucky in a way. She knew what was wrong with her from the beginning and was given help. People didn't expect things from her that they'd expected from him. He had the same fears but still was forced to touch, interact, and be crowded. He drew in a breath as the familiar anger enveloped him. If only he'd known what was happening to him, so much could have been different in his life.
Maybe helping Lily was a second chance for him? Richie had seen too much to dismisstheir meeting as coincidence. He knew better. Lily needed someone. She was alone, and very lonely. He didn't want to be her boyfriend, but he did want to be her friend. It would be a shame to see all that beautiful, kind, intelligent energy wasted
Richie wondered how to get in touch with her and then smiled. She would be back to find him.
After all, he was the only one she knew who'd do quadratic equations with her.