Someone to Watch Over Me

Someone to Watch Over Me Read Online Free PDF

Book: Someone to Watch Over Me Read Online Free PDF
Author: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Crime
lawyer appointed by the Supreme Court as Jakob’s supervisor; as you know, he is responsible for ensuring that Jakob doesn’t stay at the institution any longer than necessary. Obviously any move to reopen the case would concern him.’ Grímheiður was staring impassively at the table, and Thóra couldn’t be sure if she was actually paying attention. ‘Since your son’s development is …’ Before the meeting began Thóra had tried to come up with the right terminology to describe Jakob without offending anyone. Now that the time had come she couldn’t remember what she’d decided on, so she’d have to wing it and hope for the best. ‘Since Jakob has Down’s syndrome your opinion holds even more weight than it usually would, although of course I will discuss it further with him if you wish us to proceed with the case. I would like to reiterate that this is free of charge for both of you, so your consent does not affect Jakob’s finances, for which you are the legal executor.’ Jakob, unlike Jósteinn, had been deprived of control over his finances and the court had appointed his mother as his legal proxy. ‘As I told you on the phone, your son has made friends with this Jósteinn, who is adamant that he wishes to cover the cost of the investigation. I feel I should say that I don’t fully understand why he’s doing this and am finding it hard to shake off the feeling that he has some motive beyond pure philanthropy, but that’s not for me to judge at this stage.’
    ‘I’ve met him.’ The woman’s thin lips tightened, causing them to almost disappear. ‘I don’t like him. But Jakob seems to consider him a great friend, and he’s a good judge of character despite his learning disability.’ Grímheiður fell silent and resumed smoothing out the fringe of her shawl.
    Thóra didn’t know what she could add to this without embarrassing herself by revealing her ignorance of mental disabilities. She knew little about people with learning difficulties, or at least those that were as severe as Jakob’s, and it made her feel stressed and uncomfortable. No doubt there was plenty of information out there, but Thóra hadn’t had much time and had decided to wait until she was sure the case would be ongoing. And that all depended on the woman who now sat before her, melting. ‘But leaving aside the ques-tion of the purity of Jósteinn’s motives, what’s your opinion on this? Do you see any sense in it? What effect do you think it would have on your son, given that there’s no guarantee of it changing anything? I can’t predict how he’d react if his case was reopened – let alone how disappointed he’d be if it didn’t do any good.’
    Grímheiður stopped fiddling with the fringe and clenched her fists until her knuckles whitened. Then she relaxed them and let her shoulders droop. ‘When I found out I was pregnant with Jakob, my husband and I had long since lost all hope of having children. We were both already in our forties, and of course we were delighted. When I underwent an amniocentesis, as I was advised to due to my age, we also found out what sex the baby was.’ She inhaled sharply and sat up straighter. ‘Well, anyway. I was steered towards aborting the foetus, not explicitly, but quite emphatically. Neither I nor my husband could bear to contemplate it, despite everyone saying it would take over our lives completely; on the contrary, that was precisely why we wanted a baby. It made no odds to me that I’d have to stop working, though we certainly enjoyed having two wages. Neither of us made a huge amount of money; we barely hit an average wage. But either way, an abortion was out of the question. He was our child, no matter how many chromosomes he had.’
    Thóra couldn’t help but be impressed. She was sure that faced with the same dilemma her choice would be different, but that was irrelevant since she already had two children. Perhaps the decision hadn’t helped the woman’s
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