Chapter 11

Sam pushed Brady on the merry go round for a good 10 minutes before she ran out of energy. She sat down on it with a huff. Brady grinned.

-That was great, Sam! You go really fast!

Sam smiled and wiped the sweat from her brow.

-Thanks. Boy, that was a workout!

-Sam?

-Yah?

-Thanks for letting me play with Sean and Patrick.

-Um…you're welcome.

A moment passed. Sam looked at Brady queerly.

-Brady, why wouldn't I let you play with them?

Brady shrugged.

-Mother didn't.

-Why not?

-I don't know…Garan said that she was very…protective.

-But?

-But, I always thought that she was jealous.

-What?!

-I think she was jealous of my friends because she thought I liked them more than her.

-Did you?

He shrugged again.

-Maybe…I mean, she was my mother, so of course I loved her…but…she was kinda…strange.

Sam sat quietly waiting for him to continue.

-Not only did she not let me play with my friends very often, she wouldn't ever let me spend the night at someone else's house.

Sam sighed quietly and tried to fight back the rage that she felt swelling inside of her.

-Brady…did she ever…hurt you?

Brady thought for a minute.

-Well, there was this one time when I begged her to let me go play, that she shook me kinda hard and told me to never question her again. Then she realized what she was doing and ran off crying.

Brady looked at Sam, saw that she didn't like what she was hearing and felt the need to justify his mother's actions.

-But…it wasn't her fault…she was sick.

-Sick how?

Brady shrugged.

-I remember when I was real little she started talking to herself and nothing she said made sense to anybody. The doctor came to our house and gave her some medication. I heard him talking to Garan saying something about how he could only treat her symptoms, that there was no cure.

-Brady…how old were you do you think?

-I don't know…a year old maybe. Not much more than that.

-You remember something from when you were a year old?

-Yah…doesn't everybody?

Sam smiled.

-No. Most people remember stuff from when they were 3 or 4...but never 1.

Brady frowned.

-Do you think that this has anything to do with me being able to tell people's feelings?

-I don't know…but it's worth checking out. But not right now. Right now you and I are going to go get some ice cream.

Brady's eyes widened.

-Really?

-Yup. Come on.

They headed for the car.