A PERFECT RENDEZVOUS

Bad Luck

On the other side of the window, Frazier chuckled softly and shook his head. "He's dying to give that fish a formal burial, but his pride won't let him admit it." Sobering, he added, "What about his learning disabilities? As I recall, he's only at a second-grade level."

Dr. Wilmer gave an indelicate snort at that and reached for a manila folder on her desk containing the results of the battery of tests Harry had recently been given. Holding the open file toward him she said with a smile, "Take a look at his scores when the intelligence tests are administered orally and he's not required to read."

John Frazier complied and gave a low laugh. "The kid's got a higher IQ than I do."

"Harry is a special child in a lot of ways, John. I saw glimpses of it when I reviewed his file, but when I met him face-to-face, I knew it was true. He's feisty, brave, sensitive, and very smart. Under all that bravado of his, there's a rare kind of gentleness, an unquenchable hope, and quixotic optimism that he clings to even though it's being demolished by ugly reality. He can't improve his own lot in life, and so he's unconsciously dedicated himself to protecting the kids in whatever foster care facility he's put into. He steals for them and lies for them and organizes them into hunger strikes, and they follow wherever he leads as if he were the Pied Piper. At eleven years old, he's a born leader, but if he isn't diverted very quickly, some of his methods are going to land him in a juvenile detention center and eventually prison. And that's not even the worst of his problems right now."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that despite all his wonderful attributes, that little boy's self-esteem is so low, it's almost non-existent. Because he's been passed over for adoption, he's convinced he's worthless and unlovable. Because he can't read as well as his peers, he's convinced he's completely stupid and can't learn. And the most terrifying part of it is that he's on the verge of giving up. He's a dreamer, but he's clinging to his dreams by a thread." With unintentional force, Terry finished, "I will not let all Harry's potential, his hope, his optimism, go to waste."

Dr. Frazier's brows shot up at her tone. "Forgive me for bringing this up, Terry, but aren't you the one who used to preach about not getting too personally involved with a patient?"

With a rueful smile, Dr. Wilmer leaned against her desk, but she didn't deny it. "It was easier to follow that rule when all my patients were kids from wealthy families who think they're 'underprivileged' if they don't get a $50,000 sports car on their sixteenth birthday. Wait until you've done more work with kids like Harry—kids who are dependent on the 'system' that we set up to provide for them and have somehow fallen through the cracks in that same system. You'll lose sleep over them, even if you've never done it before."

"I suppose you're right," he said with a sigh, as he handed back the manila folder. "Out of curiosity, why hasn't he been adopted by someone?"

Teresa shrugged. "Mostly, it's been a combination of bad luck and bad timing. According to his file at the Department of Children and Family Services, he was abandoned in an alley when he was only a few hours old. Hospital records indicate he was born ten weeks prematurely and because of that and because of the poor condition he was in when he was brought to the hospital, there was a long series of health complications until he was seven years old, during which time he was repeatedly hospitalized and very frail.

"The Family Services people found adoptive parents for him when he was two years old, but in the middle of the adoption proceedings, the couple decided to get a divorce, and they dumped him back into the arms of Family Services. A few weeks later, he was placed again with another couple who'd been screened as carefully as humanly possible, but Harry came down with pneumonia, and the new couple—who'd lost their own child at Harry's age—went completely to pieces emotionally and pulled out of the adoption. Afterward, he was placed with a foster family for what was only to be a temporary time, but a few weeks later, Harry's case worker was seriously injured in an accident and never returned to work. From then on it was the proverbial 'comedy of errors.' Harry's file got misplaced—"