Chapter 6

Ed had to go down and pull Paul away from the computer at supper time. Paul kept flexing his hands and Ed surmised that Paul had been typing steadily all afternoon and had to be fed by Sally because he couldn't seem to hold his fork. Sally just made the comment that Paul was like this after he played at the computer for any length of time. She wasn't concerned at all.

Ed was, though. He hoped Paul didn't feel in his disconnected mind, that he had to do this just because he (Ed) had handed the books to him. "Paul, look at me."

Paul momentarily stopped his motions and turned to face Ed. Ed looked into the boy's eyes and surprised, he saw lucidity lurking there. It was only a flash and then Paul went back to his usual habitual actions. Ed was thrilled. This boy wasn't unaware of what was going on all the time. Wouldn't it be something if he could find a way to directly communicate with him? Ed got up and went to Paul and put his hand on his shoulder. "Hey son, somehow I'm going to make your life better than it has been. Count on it."

Thanksgiving Day was clear and cold. Paul looked out the window at the trail up the mountain. Cindy picked up on it and Ed went along again to help Paul up to the top, but no one wanted to stay long because of the frigid temperature. George and Emmy arrived about eleven and Emmy immediately joined Sally, Penny and Cindy in the kitchen.

Ed said to George. "How much do you know about autism? Sally's boy has been diagnosed with that condition. You know it is strange, but I have seen some things about him that puzzle me. He is downstairs on the computer. Let's go down and you can meet him."

George watched as Paul would barely glance at a page from the book and with fingers flashing, type it onto the screen where it scrolled almost faster than it could be read. Ed commented, "I firmly believe that as he types, the information enters Paul's mind and he is fully cognizant of the meaning. The only thing he has no way of telling us how deep his knowledge is and of course he has no way of acting on it. It is a crime for a person to have a mind that is as intelligent as I think his is and no way of expressing it."

"How far do you want to go with this, Ed? It can take a lot of time for those that are expert in their fields to determine what his condition really is. I can search through my files and ask my colleagues who would be best. Let me ask you though, what are you going to get out of this?"

"I can't answer that yet, but I have to find out if Paul can improve and the only way to do that is to have him tested and evaluated. In the meantime I'm going to give him every chance to be happy. I think the way to do that is to keep his hands busy, and somewhere lurking in his scrambled brain there is intelligence, and I want it out here so he can make use of it. I know there is for I have seen several indications."

"Son, I commend you for your efforts, but I suspect there has to be something else to make you so passionate about doing this." George looked quizzically at Ed.

"If I told you I just liked helping those that need it, would you believe me?"

"Of course I would. Look how you stepped in and have given Penny and Cindy a boost. You seem to concentrate on Paul, but you haven't said much about his mother. Has she anything to do with your desire to help him?"

"I don't know George, but I will admit she is on my mind a lot. That only complicates things though and I'll tell you why. Penny could accept that I don't love her, but I don't know how Cindy would take it if I chose Sally instead of her mother. It may break her sweet little heart and I don't want to do that either. It may never come to that, but I worry about it."

"I'd like to tell you to stop worrying, but I know you won't. Cindy is a smart little girl and you will find a way to explain it to her when and if the time comes. Now let's go up and join the women. I'm getting hungry and I can smell turkey so it must be out of the oven."

Full ... too full! That sometimes happens after a meal where there is such an abundance of food. When the many dishes were put away and the leftovers stashed, everyone was sleepy. Emmy went in and laid down on the bed in the master bedroom. George fell asleep in the recliner. The kids took the twin beds in the other room. Ed didn't want to go downstairs, so he lay down next to his ex-mother-in-law and was soon asleep.

When Ed awoke he could see the window and could tell that the day was gone. Then he realized he was lying on his side with his arm over a woman. He remembered that he had lain down with Emmy, but this wasn't her. It had to be Sally for he smelled the lavender scent she wore. He thought, "She must be asleep." He hadn't been this close to a female in a long time and it was so pleasant, he just drew her closer and drifted off to sleep again.

Ed woke to Paul's "Yaakk! He looked up and standing on the other side of the bed grinning was Penny, Cindy and Paul. Ed still had his arm over Sally.

"Come on kids those two are awake now. Let them get up while we make turkey sandwiches." Penny ushered them out the door.

Ed was still clutching Sally when she said, "Only in my dreams have I ever had a day like today. It makes me so happy I could cry."

"I wouldn't want you to cry, but I'm glad you have had a happy day. I'm also glad that I could give it to you."

Sally turned over and faced Ed and leaned into him and gently gave him a kiss. "Thank you, Ed. You are a special person." Pulling away she got off the bed. "I mean that, you really are a special person."

George and Emmy Sims had left several hours ago after their dinner had settled. Penny said she had lain down on the same bed with Sally and Ed, but when he had flopped over and put his arm over Sally, she got up and waited for the kids in the other room to wake. Ed tried to make a joke, "You mean I had three different women in bed with me this afternoon and I ... he stopped there because he almost said ... I didn't get any loving." And that wasn't true either, for he had felt the love flow from Sally to him.

Ed finished lamely, "Well you know what I mean."

Cindy of course didn't and asked, "Mommy, what did Ed mean?"

Penny smiled. "I guess Ed is a little confused from sleeping so long and in daytime too. He doesn't know himself what he meant to say. Let's eat. I have hot turkey sandwiches all ready"

After the sandwiches were consumed, Penny asked Ed, "You said I could have all of your wife's clothes and I could dispose of the ones I didn't want. Does that still hold? I can do with them what I want to, right?"

"Yes, of course. It is too bad none of them will fit Sally. She probably could use some nice things."

Sally wistfully spoke up. "I tried on some last night, but they just fall off me. No way could I wear any of them. They really are beautiful though." That was the end of the discussion about Alice's clothes.

Ed said to Paul as he took him by the hand, "Come on Paul; let's go down to the computer. We've got an hour before bedtime and I love to watch you type. By the way how did Paul learn to type?" He directed this to Sally.

Sally looked at Penny. "Penny did it when she watched over Paul. Just how did you do it, anyway? By the time I realized he could type, he was way beyond what I could do."

"It happened by accident, I guess. I had a book there by the computer that I had been reading to him. One afternoon he was sitting in the desk chair and I came in to read to him and he sat there staring at the computer. I turned it on and he still stared at it so I moved him and sat down and typed a few words from the book on Notepad. When I let him sit down, he started picking out the letters. The amazing thing is, he just has to glance at a page of type and can almost immediately copy it to the computer.

"Over a few weeks, he got so good at copying I looked for the instruction booklet that came with the computer. I couldn't find one so I borrowed one called 'Windows 95 for Dummies.' This was for myself because I'm not too good and needed to keep ahead of him. He copied the whole book and I bet he knows more about how to operate a computer than most of us do."

Ed had a feeling Penny was right and had just explained how Paul became so adept. Penny continued, "The thing is Paul has never been at a computer that is plugged onto the Internet. That scares me for I don't have any idea what would happen. I suspect he knows all about the internet, though. He has copied enough knowledge from the books I have given him."

"You are probably right, but what will happen if he has something coming at him from the internet?" Will he have to re-copy that to understand what it means? Well let's figure him out by all of us talking about what we have observed him doing. We know that if he copies something, he knows what it says and if it tells him to do something he will do it. I'm right in that aren't I?"

Penny seemed to have taught more to Paul than Sally had and she agreed with Ed. "Well let's figure out a way to get the information from written text that is already on a page implanted into his brain ... short of him having to copy it. Any suggestions?" No one had any answers at that time, but Ed thought there must be a way and he would work on it.

Ed lay awake that night in his lonely bed in the basement. He wished fervently that he was upstairs lying beside Sally like he had been this afternoon. Then his mind switched over to trying to solve the problem of getting Paul to comprehend what was on the computer screen without typing it. There just had to be a way. God, it was frustrating! But then Ed then thought how frustrated Paul must be. Paul had to be aware that there was information printed and he couldn't unlock it unless he typed it.

He had a thought so he got out of bed and booted up the computer at the other end of the room. For almost an hour he typed text on it. When he finished he went back to bed and went to sleep.

Cindy made pancakes for breakfast. Ed heard Penny talking to someone on the phone about nine and when she hung up she was all smiles. "Ed, I'm going to take the rest of Alice's clothes into town and find a place for them. I'm also going to buy Sally a dress for tomorrow night when you take her and me dancing. That is if you would go--and protect us? We could go by ourselves, but all the town wolves will be after us. We are going shopping today and tomorrow. We are going in and get beautiful. Okay?" What could Ed say?

Ed walked the kids up the mountain. Paul was getting more rigorous exercise than he ever had in his life before. Cindy had wanted to go with her mother and Sally but she had been bribed into staying with Ed and Paul. The promise that she could also go and have her hair done with them tomorrow was the bribe.

Later Ed took the kids down into the basement. "Cindy, I'm going to try something with Paul. I want you to sit quietly at the foot of the stairs and see if my theory works." Ed sat Paul at the computer and brought up the page of text he had put into it during the night. Taking Paul's hand he placed it on the mouse and highlighted a line of text.

The text directed: "Paul, save the text to the desktop and exit the file." Paul became highly agitated and Ed had to place his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Calm Paul. Be calm." Ed decided maybe he should repeat the moves again. Going more slowly he put his fingers over Paul's and pressed down and dragged the highlight over the line, inch by inch.

Paul immediately did as directed by saving the file to the desktop. Ed could have shouted with joy. He had found a direct way to communicate with Paul's scrambled brain! Ed brought the file up again and making the same moves, high-lighted the second line he had typed last night. The text directed: "Get up and go get Cindy and then come back and highlight the third line yourself." Paul followed the directions, leading Cindy by the hand back to Ed and then doing the highlight to see what else was required by reading the text.