An Act of Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

others.”
    “Not mine.”
    “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Dr. Travis disagreed. “Adolescence can be a difficult time. And all families have problems of one kind or another.”
    Emily sipped her 7UP and did not reply.
    “Through? Shall we go on?” Dr. Travis rose, showed Emily where to toss her trash and where the cart was for her plate and utensils, and then they walked on down the corridor.
    “The smoking room.”
    “I don’t smoke.”
    “Good. The small group discussion room. The crafts room. Exercise room. The kitchen. Wednesday evenings the patients usually make some kind of dessert to be eaten during Family Group.”
    “Family Group?”
    “Parents are invited to join us on Wednesday evenings, to discuss general problems, to ask questions about the hospital, and so on.”
    “What if you don’t want to have your family come?”
    “Let me answer that in a roundabout way. Tomorrow after you have a complete physical, you’ll meet with the adolescent team psychiatrist for some tests, and you and I will talk some more, intensively. We’ll see if we can discover what brought you here, what your special concerns are, what goals you’d like to achieve while you’re here in the hospital. On your pamphlet you’ll see we’ve left space for you to record your goals and the progress you’re making toward them. What you write won’t be judged; it won’t even be read. It’s for you to keep notes about what’s going on with you. We find it’s helpful for the family to visit, once a week, to remind our patients of the life they will be returning to, so they might start discussing and thinking of options for changing their lives, often in relation to their families.”
    They had walked in a rectangle and now were back at Emily’s room, and Emily was glad, because suddenly she was exhausted. Dr. Travis was nice enough and certainly eager to help. It wasn’t her fault that no one could help, that nothing could ever fix Emily’s life.
    “I’m tired.”
    “Then rest. Someone will wake you for dinner. And you might have visitors this evening.”
    “I don’t want to see anyone.”
    “Your parents are going to return with some of your clothing and personal necessities. At that time you can ask them to bring you anything else you might need. And after Thanksgiving vacation, they can bring you your homework and school books.”
    “You think I’m going to be here for a long time.”
    “We don’t know that yet.”
    “Will I go home for Christmas?”
    Dr. Travis looked at Emily for a long moment before replying, “Let’s not think that far ahead until we’ve done a more thorough intake on you, okay?”
    Emily shrugged. Weak with fatigue, she sank onto the bed, put her hand over her eyes to block out the light, and hurried back into the protection of sleep. She heard Dr. Travis close the door.

    They drove toward Hedden, stunned.
    “She looked pale, but otherwise all right. Not ill.”
    “There’s so much we don’t know. So much they didn’t tell us.”
    “Owen, she’s gained so much weight.”
    “Perhaps she has an eating disorder.”
    The entrance to the school was marked by a stone lion rampant with a plaque in its mouth inscribed HEDDEN ACADEMY . A private road wound through evergreens past a pond and over a rushing stream until it arrived at what looked like a miniature Oxford. The eight stone buildings were built around a courtyard and ornamented with corner turrets and gargoyles on the waterspouts. The chapel with its grand rose window and soaring spire towered at the front while the new plebeian gymnasium hunkered down at the far end of the campus.
    “Where do you want to go first?” Owen asked.
    “Emily’s dorm.”
    It was early afternoon. As they parked in the visitors’ lot and walked across the fields toward Shipley Hall, students rushed past them toward the football field or the crew house. Others tossed Frisbees or stood talking in clusters beneath trees.Occasionally a student stared