bored with what she’s doing, exactly. It’s more as though she finds herself more interesting than the real world. It’s getting harder to keep her focused on the real world, and that bothers me. It’s beginning to look like we’re losing touch with her, instead of getting closer to her.” Marie Montgomery saw the flash of pain in Jack’s eyes and hurried on. “That’s really the major reason for this meeting. To find out if the same things are happening at home.”
Rose shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she said doubtfully, “but of course I can’t really be sure. I find it awfully hard to look at her objectively. I’m afraid I try to see progress where there might not be any.”
“There’s progress,” Jack said, but his voice indicated that his statement might be more wish than fact.
“Jack,” Rose said, as gently as she could. “What progress has there been, really?” She turned back to Mrs. Montgomery. “I wish I could tell you whether or not there really has been any change in Sarah, but I can’t.”
“We’re not expecting you to be able to tell us anything today,” Dr. Belter put in. “As we’ve tried to make clear, nothing major has happened. This is simply to alert you to something that might be happening. We aren’t sure, and we’re asking for your help. It would be very helpful for us, and for Sarah, if you could simply be aware that something may be going on that we don’t know about, and try to notice anything unusual or different in her behavior.”
“Well,” Jack said carefully, “there was that thing with the Ouija board the other night.”
“Ouija board?” Dr. Belter said. “I haven’t seen one of those things in years. Do they still make them?”
“Not this one,” Rose said. “Elizabeth found it in a storeroom or something. And the Ouija board really had nothing to do with what happened.”
She recounted the incident of a few nights earlier, and Sarah’s reaction to the cat brushing up against her. As she talked, Dr. Belter took a few notes.
“It was really nothing,” Rose finished.
“And they were playing with a Ouija board?” Dr. Belter asked again. “Hmm.” He made a final note and looked up. “Does Sarah spend much time with her sister?”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Jack said. “The worst part of each day is when Elizabeth leaves for school and Sarah has to wait for the van to bring her out here. They’re practically inseparable.”
“And how does Elizabeth react to Sarah?” the doctor asked.
“Considering her age,” Rose said, “it’s amazing. You have to remember that Elizabeth is only thirteen herself. But the way she takes care of Sarah, you’d think she was five years older. She seems to understand Sarah, somehow. She plays with her by the hour, and reads to her, and it never bothers her when Sarah suddenly wrecks whatever they’re playing, or grabs a book out of her hands. And the other night, when Sarah screamed, it was as if Elizabeth didn’t hear it at all. It upset Jack and me much more than it did either of the gris.”
“It’s strange,” Jack said, picking up the thread. “Elizabeth talks to Sarah, and she never seems to notice that Sarah doesn’t talk back. It’s as if Sarah doesn’t have to talk—Elizabeth seems to communicate with her or something. Sometimes Elizabeth makes me feel inadequate. I’ve tried to talk to Sarah so many times I can’t count them, but as soon as I pick her up she starts wriggling around, and in a couple of minutes she’s out of my lap and off to find Elizabeth.”
“Has she shown any signs of violence at home?” Dr. Belter said quietly.
“Sarah? I don’t think so,” Rose said. “Why?”
“Again, it’s nothing we can really put our finger on,” Dr. Belter said. “The screaming when the cat brushed up against her reminded me of it. One day last week one of the children came up behind Sarah and touched her shoulder. She screamed, which isn’t abnormal for her, but she also whirled around and hit the other child. She hadn’t done that before, and we still don’t know if it was an accident or if she struck at the child on purpose. Has she ever swung at either of you? Or at Elizabeth?”
Jack and Rose shook their heads.
“Certainly not at either of us,” Rose said. “And if she’d ever done anything like that to Elizabeth, I’m sure we’d have heard about it.” She paused a moment, as if