Silent Boy: He was a frightened boy who refused to speak – until a teacher's love broke through the silence

He was exhausted. Every last bit of energy drained out of him. I was feeling a great camaraderie with him just then. His success did not have anything to do with me, but I felt very privileged that he had let me share it. I was smiling, without even being aware of it.

‘That was hard work, wasn’t it?’ I said. ‘You must be dead tired.’

‘Ho,’ he said, and I could hear him repeat the sound a couple of times. ‘Ho, ho. I …,’ he said, ‘I, I didn’t … ho … I didn’t think I was going to do it. Whew. Whooooow.’ His voice cracked and he cleared his throat. ‘I didn’t think I was ever going to be able to do that again,’ he said softly from under his arms. ‘I thought I never could do it.’

On Sunday afternoon I had Charity over. It was the first time we had seen one another since the open house. I had planned to make a kite with her and take her down to the field at the bottom of the road to fly it. The wind was excellent for kite flying, and it was a beautiful autumn afternoon.

Charity was unimpressed.

‘What’s this for?’ she asked as she came into the kitchen. I had sticks and newspapers lying spread out on the table. I explained carefully, trying to make my own enthusiasm for the project contagious. I loved making kites, and it had grown to be a passsion when I had had my classroom.

‘What do you want to do that for?’ she asked earnestly. ‘You can buy kites at the store. You don’t have to make ’em, you know.’

‘It’s fun.’

‘Oh.’

I bribed her with a chocolate-chip cookie, and we set about cutting and gluing and tying tails. Charity was a little scruffier looking than she had been on the night of the open house. Although her hair was in braids, they obviously had been slept in, causing long strands of hair to escape. Toast crumbs and bits of jam clung to the hair by her face. Her forehead was still patched up with Band-Aids, one across the other in an X, like a pirate’s crossbones. She wore a faded T-shirt with an even more faded kitten on it and, up on the right-hand shoulder, a huge, glittery dime-store brooch. It had a big hunk of blue glass in the middle, surrounded by rhinestones. I commented on it.

‘Oh this?’ Charity asked, and went a little cross-eyed trying to see it. ‘My big sister Sandy bought it for me. See, she gave it to me. It’s an emerald.’

‘I thought emeralds were green. Maybe it’s a sapphire.’

‘Nope. It’s an emerald. A blue emerald. They’re betterer than green emeralds. Green ones are common. These’re rare!’

‘Well, yes, I’d agree with that,’ I said.

‘It’s real too.’

‘Really?’

‘Yup. It’s worth at least a million dollars probably. Only I’d never sell it. Sandy gave it to me and it’s a real, genuine blue emerald.’

‘Do you have other sisters, Charity?’

‘Oh yeah. I got Sandy, she’s twelve. And Cheryl, she’s ten. And Diana, she’s eight.’

‘Diana? I thought Diana was your Big Sister from the program.’

‘This is another Diana. This one’s my real, genuine sister. For real.’

‘I see. And that’s all? Are you the youngest?’

She nodded decisively. ‘Yep. I’m the very youngest.

When they got me, they stopped. ’Cause I’m the very best. They didn’t want any more after me.’

I could understand that. For a moment I became absorbed in getting paper to stick to the side of the kite, then I looked over. ‘Hey, wait a minute, Charity. I thought you said you were eight. If you’re eight, how come Diana’s eight?’

Charity looked flustered, but only for a fleeting moment. She smacked her forehead with one hand. ‘Oh, I goofed. Silly me. Diana’s nine. I forgot.’

‘Oh. I thought perhaps you were twins,’ I said, thanking God for not making two of Charity.

‘Yeah! That’s right! I forgot. We’re twins.’

‘But I thought you just said –’

‘Well, see, Diana’s the oldest twin and I’m the youngest.’

‘I thought you said she was nine, though. And you’re eight.’

‘Well, yeah, I did,’ she said, looking at me as if I were the one who was losing her marbles.

‘Are you sure you know what twins are, Charity?’

‘Of course I do. Do you think I’m stupid? I just forgot. I got a lot on my mind and I just forgot. Diana’s just the oldest twin and I’m the youngest. First her and then me. So that’s why she’s nine. And I’m going to be nine pretty soon too.’

‘Oh? When?’

‘Next August.’

‘But, Charity, it’s October now.’

‘Yeah, see what I mean? Any day now I’ll be nine.’

Clearly this was a conversation best to be dropped.

Later we walked down to the field to fly the kite. The wind was good and even Charity’s part of the kite held up well, despite its patches. Charity ran when I told her to run and stopped when I told her to stop and let the string out when instructed. When the kite was finally airborne, she sank gratefully into the grass and sprawled out. I sat down next to her.

She looked over. ‘How come we’re doing this?’

‘Because it’s fun.’

‘Oh,’ she said, quite interested. ‘When does the fun part start?’

‘This is the fun part, Charity.’

‘Oh, it is?’ Her forehead wrinkled. ‘You do this for fun?’

I was a little disenchanted with this kid. After all, it was my Sunday afternoon too. ‘Yes, I do this for fun. And I’m having it. Why aren’t you?’

Charity looked startled. ‘Well, I guess maybe I am,’ she said. ‘I just didn’t know it.’ And for the first time since she’d arrived, she fell silent.

Both of us lay in the grass and watched the kite. Charity rose after a while and walked around the field before coming back and settling down with me again. She chattered on constantly.

At the end of the day when I was preparing to take her home, she fished something out of her pocket.

‘Here.’