your ankle indicates that she may be getting a little better. Granted, it was a macabre thing for her to do—at least, it seems so to us, but it may not have been macabre to her at all. It may have been something else entirely.” She reviewed the incident with the magazine and Sarah’s reaction to the pictures of cats. “She may have been trying to tell you something.”
“Such as?” Rose asked.
The teacher shrugged. “That’s the hard part. You have to remember that Sarah’s mind isn’t working the same way as yours and mine. There’s really no way for us to know what she was trying to communicate. But whatever it was, it must have been important She doesn’t normally spend that much time doing anything, let alone anything that takes the dexterity of fastening one of those plastic collars. They’re tricky.”
Dr. Belter nodded his head in agreement, and seemed to come to a decision in his own mind. He spoke to his colleagues. “I think I’d better talk to the Congers alone, if you don’t mind.”
Josephine Wells started to protest, but Mrs. Montgomery was already on her feet “Of course,” she said, over the social worker’s voice. “If you need us, page us.” Before Josie could say anything, Marie Montgomery was pulling her out of the office. Dr. Belter waited until the door was closed before he spoke.
“You two are having a rough time of it, aren’t you?” he said at last Rose and Jade stared at him, each waiting for the other to speak. The silence lengthened, until Rose broke it.
“Yes,” she said, barely audibly. “We are. And it isn’t all Sarah.”
Dr. Belter’s head bobbed. “Not directly, anyway. Do you want to tell me what’s going on at your house?”
Rose waited for Jack to speak, but when he didn’t she began talking about their problems. As she talked she became aware of a strange detachment, as though she were talking about two other people, not herself and her husband. She recounted the fights and the cruelties they had inflicted on each other, and was surprised to discover that she was being Mr; she was presenting Jack’s side of things as well as her own. When she was finished, Dr. Belter turned to Jack.
“You want to add anything?”
“No,” Jack said. He smiled at his wife. “I have to hand it to you—I couldn’t have been that fair.”
“Mrs. Conger,” Dr. Belter said, “has it occurred to you that maybe you should be in therapy too?”
“What do you mean?” Rose said defensively.
Dr. Belter smiled easily. “Well, let’s face it Generally speaking, I consider emotional problems to be a communicable disease. If one person in a family is having problems, others usually are too, if for no other reason than that it is difficult to live with someone who is mentally ill. It is quite easy for someone with no particularly severe problems to develop some severe problems simply because of the extra pressure involved in living with a person as disturbed as Sarah.”
“And you think I’m developing some severe problems?”
“Are you?” Dr. Belter tossed the question back to her.
Her initial impulse was to deny it, but Rose realized that she couldn’t, not if she was honest She remembered the moments of panic she was having, the tight feelings in her stomach, the sudden flashes of anger she felt, the way she had begun to overreact. An image came to her mind of Elizabeth fleeing from the study in tears, simply because Rose had yelled at her about getting her clothes dirty.
“You’re suggesting that I could use some therapy too?” she asked noncommittally.
“I’m suggesting that both of you could use some therapy. You don’t seem to be handling your problems very well, either of you, which is understandable, considering the circumstances. All I’m suggesting is that you both could use some help.”
“Maybe we should throw in Elizabeth, too, and qualify for a family discount,” Jack said. When the chuckle died away, Dr. Belter’s face took on a serious cast.
“What about Elizabeth?” he said.
“She’s incredible,” Rose said. “Other than when I yelled at her on Saturday for getting her dress dirty, she’s been an angel. She’s patient with Sarah, takes care of herself. Sometimes I wonder what I’d do without her.”
“She must be an amazing child,” Dr. Belter mused. “Generally, a child her age, with a sibling like Sarah, would show at least intermittent hostility toward the sick brother or sister. It’s because of the extra attention the sick one gets, of course,