“I mean, come on. Just because I – ”
“Jason, I understand you’ve been in this position before. I want to help you. I’m not like the others – I understand you and your needs and your situation but - ”
Jason can’t believe what he’s hearing.
“Did you just say my needs?”
The suited man in front of him looks worn down and dishevelled, like he irons the creases that cripple his forehead into his face every morning so people don’t give him a hard time. He has thinning grey hair and a loose tie. His suit jacket is crumpled beneath a leather satchel in one corner of the room. Jason can see sweat patches under his arms. Gross, he thinks.
“I don’t have any ‘needs’,” says Jason irritably. “I’m a ‘normal’ kid, if you wish to put it crudely. But if you again dare to suggest otherwise, I’ll, I’ll – ”
“Jason!” says his mother with a warning note in her voice.
“NO!”
The two adults in the room exchange glances. They’re both taken aback.
“Look,” fumes Jason, “just listen for one second. I didn’t agree to meet you because I want to be able to walk again. It was the same with the last guy, the woman before and the dude before him. I don’t want to walk again. I just come to make mum happy.”
An icy tension has gripped the room. No one dares to move. The colour has drained from Jason’s mum’s face.
“I gave up on walking years ago,” he says in a small voice, before turning and wheeling himself out of the room.
The door slams shut. The two remaining people look at each other for a long hard moment that lasts forever.
“How,” says the man, “could you not have told him?”
“What?” Jason’s mum doesn’t look up.
“About any of this! Anything!”
“I – ” She falters. “I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that I only put him in for sessions because – because it’s too late for me.”
“What about me? Didn’t he get suspicious about coming to a flat? This isn’t one of those sessions!”
“Look, David, I didn’t know you survived the plane crash until last year. How can I break it to him that his father is alive? I thought talking to you would help him see that this is the right path for him but…”
“I’m sorry, Amanda.”
His head is bowed and he’s staring at the skin beneath his thumb. It’s peeling off slowly and now it falls off.
And with that, Jason’s mum wheels herself out of the room after her son.
