Chapter 2
Shawn didn't understand what had happened. Gus's party had been great! There was cake, presents, toys, and lots of other kids his age. They had run around playing tag, laughing, it seemed like he was making friends. Then they sat down to play this memory card game thing. People would flip over cards one at a time and try to pick the matching pairs. Shawn wasn't really sure what the point of it was, the game was so easy. He won round after round, bored with the whole thing, and that's when the trouble started.
"He's cheating," one of the other kids whined.
"This is no fun."
"This sucks."
Pretty soon all of kids were complaining and accusing him of cheating, and Shawn didn't know why. He tried to explain it was just really easy, but that just seemed to make every one angrier. Soon all the kids left to go play in the yard with Gus's new ball, but they wouldn't let him play.
"You'll just cheat, you cheater."
Shawn wasn't a cheater. He wasn't! But no one would listen. So he went back inside to sulk in the kitchen by the leftover cake. He just didn't understand. Why couldn't they see how easy it was? It was a stupid game anyway.
"Hey, want to play with my new motorcycles?" It was Gus. He was tugging Shawn's shirt with one hand and holding out the toy bikes with the other.
"Aren't you afraid I'll cheat?" Shawn snapped, still sulking and mad at the other kids.
"I don't think you can cheat playing with motorcycles," Gus said simply. "Besides, I don't think you were cheating earlier."
Shawn spun around and jumped down from his stool. "You don't?" he said eagerly.
"Nope, I just think you're weird." Gus said.
"Thanks…?" Shawn said uncertain if being weird was better than being a cheater. He guessed it must be, because Gus at least seemed willing to play with someone who was weird. Gus handed Shawn one of the motorcycles and they sat down on the kitchen floor and proceeded to see who could make their motorcycle slide the farthest across the tile flooring.
On the ride home, Henry couldn't help but notice Shawn was unusually quiet. The kid was normally a chatter box; you couldn't get him to shut up. In fact, he'd been dreading the sugar high the kid was likely to still be experiencing after the birthday party. Instead, he had been quiet, only answering questions with soft, one word answers and staring distractedly out the window.
It was making Henry nervous. His mind was still filled with his early observations about Shawn, worried about bringing the subject up with Maddie, and now this. An unusually sullen and quiet child.
"Something bugging you, kid?" He asked, toning down his normally gruff voice in an attempt to seem non-threatening.
"Dad?" Shawn asked softly.
"Yeah? What is it kiddo?" He glanced over to see him looking down at his hands with a worried frown on his face.
"Am I weird?"
"Weird? Why would you ask that?" Henry stalled, momentarily unsure what to say in light of his earlier conclusions.
"It's just – the kids were really mean!" Shawn started to explain heatedly. "We were playing a game, Memory, and you have to flip over cards – and it was just dumb. It was so easy, but no one else was winning, and they said I was cheating, but I wasn't! I wasn't Dad, I swear! It was just dumb, but then no one would play with me, except Gus, he said I wasn't a cheater, just weird." The kid was panting, having spilled the entire story all in a rush, hardly taking time to breath.
"Whoa, whoa! Calm down, kiddo!" Henry said. The last thing he needed was Shawn hyperventilating on him. "Just take a few breaths, huh?" He pulled the truck over and parked, then reached his hand over to rub the kid's bony shoulders. It may have been said in a rush, but Henry got the general idea of what had happened and it just confirmed his earlier suspicions. Shaw was different, he wouldn't be able to deny that, but hopefully he could make the kid feel a bit better about it.
"I didn't cheat, Dad. I swear," Shawn said, looking up at him with watery eyes. Henry sighed, he wasn't good with all this emotional stuff, but Madeline wasn't here right now and he'd have to tell the kid something.
"I know, Shawn. I believe you," he reassured, giving the kid a brief little squeeze.
"You know how Mom remembers everything we say?" Eidetic tonal memory, Maddie had called it. And really, they should have entertained the possibility their child would inherit some sort of similar gift, but it was so rare. It had really never crossed their minds. And this seemed a bit different, anyway. It wasn't just sounds Shawn seemed to clearly remember. It seemed bigger than that. Obviously they wouldn't know for sure until they took him in to see some kind of specialist, but it seemed likely the kid had some kind of related gift.
"Yeah," Shawn said slowly, not sure where this was going.
"I think you're like Mom, except you remember more things. That's why the game was so easy for you," Henry tried to explain.
"But I wasn't doing anything!" Shawn said, obviously still confused.
"I know, I know," Henry said. "It's just how you are Shawn. But for the other kids, it's harder for them to remember things. They didn't know where the cards were, they had to guess."
Shawn furrowed his brows. Obviously the idea seemed a bit strange to him. "But it was so easy…"
"You have to understand Shawn, what is easy for you can be hard for other people." Henry paused, trying to think how to best explain things. "It's like how I'm good at cooking, but your Mom always burns the fish on the grill. It seems easy to me, but it's hard for her. Do you understand?"
"I guess so." Shawn paused, kicking his against the seat as he thought about it. "Am I weird then?"
"No, Shawn," Henry said. "Just different. Everyone has their own strengths, and you are just good at remembering things. Ok?" Shawn nodded and shrugged, still playing with the hem of his shirt. Henry sighed. Well, that was as good as he was going to get, he supposed. If Shawn was as smart as he suspected, it was going to be all too obvious how 'different' he was from everyone else and there was no real good way to make that easier to accept. Maybe it was better to keep his mind off of it.
"I have a new game for you," Henry said as he started up the truck. "I want you to pay attention to all the cars we see on the way home and then I want you to tell me what color they are when we get home."
"Ok!" Shawn said, always excited about another game. Maybe it was a good thing the kid was so easily distracted. "What do I win if I get all of them right?"
Crap. Henry hadn't thought about that. For that matter, how would he even know if the kid got all of them right? He wasn't likely to remember all of them by the time they got home. He was going to have to think of a better game if this was going to become a regular thing. Well, best just fake it for today.
"If you get them all right, we'll play catch in the backyard when we get home."
"Awesome!" Shawn cheered and then promptly began to stare intently out of the window. Henry sighed softly to himself. Well, one crisis averted for now. Now he'd just have to figure out how to tell Maddie everything and figure out how they were going to handle this. Raising the energetic kid was hard enough already, Henry wasn't sure how much this would complicate everything. He already felt like he was floundering sometimes with the parenting thing, how were they going to raise a 'gifted' child?
One problem at a time. One problem at a time, Henry chanted to himself.
