"Michael Kandel - Hooking Up" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kandel Michael)

know what therapy is? Therapy is something that makes you feel better. We have
people who will do that with you. They've been specially trained. We'll give you
some medicine, too, to feel better. It's very important to be honest about how
you feel and not deny it if you feel bad. I hope you understand. It's all right
to cry. Sometimes bad things make us feel bad, but we can't let it make us cry
all the time, either, we have to learn to be strong.

Topaz saw that the chairs were the same as at the Franklin Child Center. The
notebooks, however, were better, newer. Her notebook didn't have any wobbly
keys, and the screen was nice and clear. It had plenty of memory. One of the
children behind her was moaning, but it wasn't an unhappy moaning, he was just
making that noise because he didn't have all his mental capacity. That's why
they hadn't hooked him up. The sound was monotonous and annoying, but Topaz
didn't mind it. Actually, it made her feel comfortable, as if she was in a kind
of family. She felt that she could help take care of these children, and the
thought made her feel very grown-up. Her mother and father would be proud of her
when they came to the school after the trouble was over. What a wonderful child
we have, they would say, amazed.

The pills the children took were pale blue. After a while they made Topaz feel
warm inside. They made her feel like laughing, too, but she kept the laughing
feeling to herself, because something awful had happened, after all. A woman who
had been specially trained took her and three other children into a therapy
session in another room, and they played with dolls that fell down and didn't
get up ever again. They talked about that, and how they felt about it. The woman
told them how wonderfully they were doing. After the therapy session, Topaz went
out to the fenced-in park and introduced herself to two girls who were standing
by the fence. I'm Topaz, she said, who are you? I'm Amber, said the short girl,
who had a scar on her mouth. I'm Fiona, said the fat girl, who had a big body
but a small head.

Topaz took charge of them and taught them the word and leap-frog game, but Fiona
couldn't jump, so Topaz taught them another game. They didn't seem to care that
much for it at first, but when they warmed up, they started smiling. You look
much better when you smile, she told them, using the voice the therapy woman had
used to her.

In the hall, Topaz noticed that a boy was following her. She turned and asked
him his name. Buck, he said. I'm Topaz, she said, and held out her hand to shake
hands. Paz, he said. Topaz, she said. Paz, he repeated, and didn't shake her
hand. Nice meeting you, Buck, she said and went back to her class.

Ms. G. told them a story about a princess who is put to sleep for twenty years
because she was rude. She didn't tell it very well, and Topaz had read it before
anyway in a book. When the princess wakes up, she isn't rude anymore, she's
learned her lesson. Topaz didn't understand how sleep could make you polite, but
she remembered her father saying that sleep was a healer. Uncle Archer slept a
lot, because of his back.

The children lived together in the gray-white building opposite the playing