The Woman in the Window(9)

“Hello, Fox,” he says.

“My room is bigger than my old room,” Ethan repeats.

I settle back, fold one leg over the other. It feels almost absurdly posed. I wonder when I last crossed my legs. “Where are you going to school?”

“Home school,” he says. “My mom teaches me.” Before I can respond, he nods at a picture on a side table. “Is that your family?”

“Yes. That’s my husband and my daughter. He’s Ed and she’s Olivia.”

“Are they home?”

“No, they don’t live here. We’re separated.”

“Oh.” He strokes Punch’s back. “How old is she?”

“She’s eight. How old are you?”

“Sixteen. Seventeen in February.”

It’s the sort of thing Olivia would say. He’s older than he looks.

“My daughter was born in February. Valentine’s Day.”

“I’m the twenty-eighth.”

“So close to leap year,” I say.

He nods. “What do you do?”

“I’m a psychologist. I work with children.”

He wrinkles his nose. “Why would children need a psychologist?”

“All sorts of reasons. Some of them have trouble in school, some of them have difficulty at home. Some of them have a tough time moving to a new place.”

He says nothing.

“So I suppose that if you’re homeschooled, you have to meet friends outside of class.”

He sighs. “My dad found a swim league for me to join.”

“How long have you swum?”

“Since I was five.”

“You must be good.”

“I’m okay. My dad says I’m capable.”

I nod.

“I’m pretty good,” he admits modestly. “I teach it.”

“You teach swimming?”

“To people with disabilities. Not, like, physical disabilities,” he adds.

“Developmental disabilities.”

“Yeah. I did that a lot in Boston. I want to do it here, too.”

“How did you start doing that?”

“My friend’s sister has Down syndrome, and she saw the Olympics a couple years ago and wanted to learn to swim. So I taught her and then some other kids from her school. And then I got into that whole . . .”—he fumbles for the word—“scene, I guess.”

“That’s great.”

“I’m not into parties or anything like that.”

“Not your scene.”

“No.” Then he smiles. “Not at all.”

He twists his head, looks at the kitchen. “I can see your house from my room,” he says. “It’s up there.”

I turn. If he can see the house, that means he’s got an easterly view, facing my bedroom. The thought is briefly bothersome—he’s a teenage boy, after all. For the second time I wonder if he might be gay.

And then I see that his eyes have gone glassy.

“Oh . . .” I look to my right, where the tissues should be, where they used to be in my office. Instead there’s a picture frame, Olivia beaming at me, gap-toothed.

“Sorry,” Ethan says.

“No, don’t be sorry,” I tell him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He scrubs his eyes.

I wait a moment. He’s a child, I remind myself—tall and broken-voiced, but a child.

“I miss my friends,” he says.

“I bet. Of course.”

“I don’t know anyone here.” A tear tumbles down one cheek. He swipes at it with the heel of his hand.

“Moving is tough. It took me a little while to meet people when I moved here.”

He sniffles loudly. “When did you move?”

“Eight years ago. Or actually nine, now. From Connecticut.”

He sniffles again, brushes his nose with a finger. “That’s not as far away as Boston.”

“No. But moving from anywhere is tough.” I’d like to hug him. I won’t. local recluse fondles neighbor child.

We sit for a moment in silence.

“Can I have some more water?” he asks.

“I’ll get it for you.”

“No, it’s fine.” He begins to stand; Punch pours himself down his leg, pooling beneath the coffee table.

Ethan walks to the kitchen sink. As the faucet runs, I get up and approach the television, haul open the drawer beneath the set.

“Do you like movies?” I call. No answer; I turn to see him standing at the kitchen door, gazing at the park. Beside him, the bottles in the recycling bin glow fluorescent.

After a moment, he faces me. “What?”

“Do you like movies?” I repeat. He nods. “Come take a look. I’ve got a big DVD library. Very big. Too big, my husband says.”

“I thought you were separated,” Ethan mumbles, crossing toward me.

“Well, he’s still my husband.” I inspect the ring on my left hand, twist it. “But you’re right.” I gesture at the open drawer. “If you’d like to borrow anything, you’re welcome to it. Do you have a DVD player?”

“My dad’s got an attachment for his laptop.”