Russell's Return Read Online Free PDF Page A

was
getting way to emotional for him and somehow, she seemed to sense it and had
changed the subject.
    “So, what would you like to tell me
about Miranda?” Emily waited quietly for him to begin.
    But that was the problem, he just didn’t
know where to begin. There was so much to tell and he was afraid he just might
omit something important. He really should have written notes.
    “Okay, here goes,” he paused and took a
deep breath. “As you witnessed, she can be difficult. She has tantrums to end
all tantrums, she can be extremely rude to people and overall, she has some
very strange behaviors.”       
    Emily reached over to the nearby end
table and picked up a pad of paper and a pen.
    “You need to write this down?” he asked
a bit nervously.
    “Relax Mr. Harper, we have almost two
hundred students and I can’t remember everything about every one of them. I
just want to make sure I cover all the bases.”
    “Sorry,” he blew out an elongated
breath. “I had visions of being psychoanalyzed there for a minute.” Russell had
briefly seen a psychiatrist after his wife left, but it just hadn’t seemed to
help any.  Maybe he just hadn’t given it much of a chance.
    Emily laughed, it was such a beautiful
lyrical sound. But for some strange reason Russell’s ears were ringing, and he
was on the verge of hyperventilating. He had to stop letting this woman, his
daughter’s counselor no less, make him react this way.
    “Go ahead and tell me more about
Miranda,” she urged bringing his attention back to the subject at hand.
    “Yeah… well, she’s pretty good in class,
but if something - a task or a situation - overwhelms her, she might have a
tantrum or start crying and she’s very hard to calm down.” Russell stood up and
walked over to the other side of the room. Sometimes he felt better if he was
pacing the floor. It had a calming effect on him. He’d noticed Miranda did it
too.
    “She hates peas,” he said calmly, very
matter of fact. “She says they feel weird or something. I really don’t get that
one but…” He just shrugged his shoulders. “If the lunch room monitor tries to
make her eat them she will break down, there is no doubt about it.”
    He walked over to look through Emily’s
collection of books, everything from children’s books to volumes about children
and psychology and counseling. It was quite an impressive collection.  “Also,
she has been known to take her socks off in a corner at recess and we need to
discourage her from doing that so the kids don’t make fun of her for being…” He
stopped and turned to Emily.  ”Sweaty feet without socks, well that’s just
not good.” Emily just nodded her head in agreement. Russell continued, he was
on a roll now. “She doesn’t make friends. If I didn’t know better I’d say she
doesn’t know how to be a friend or even what to say to other kids her
age.  Given a chance, she’ll hang around the teachers and monitors
instead.”
    Russell sat back down. “I just worry
about her so much. Em - Miss Zane. I fear every day that she is sad or hurting
or just not functioning well.  I dread every time the phone rings, that I
will have to come run interference or take her home.” He had his head in his
hands and Emily lightly touched his arm. It saddened her that this man, this
family seemed to be suffering so much.  She really needed to get to the
bottom of it.
    “It’s okay, we’ll take good care of her.
I’ll personally counsel her, maybe get her into a social skills group here at
school. If we need to we can make her an Individualized Education Plan to help
her out in the areas she needs. And I will personally notify every staff member
in the lunchroom of her aversion to peas, although we don’t usually pressure
the kids about what they eat. “
    Russell looked up into those soft green
eyes and felt instantly reassured. Wow, she was good, she must be able to
hypnotize people with those gorgeous eyes. For a brief