funny, exciting but not really dangerous. Her revised version of events
entertained Bobby nearly as much as it did Thomas.
After a while, as usual, Thomas became overwhelmed by what Julie was
telling him, and the tale grew more confusing than entertaining.
“I’m full up,” he said, which meant he was still trying to process
everything he had been told, and didn’t have room for any more just now.
He was fascinated by the world outside Cielo Vista, and he often longed
to be a part of it, but at the same time he found it too loud and bright
and colorful to be handled in more than small doses.
Bobby got one of the older scrapbooks from the shelves and sat on the
bed, reading picture poems.
Thomas and Julie sat in their chairs, Cokes put aside, knees to knees,
leaning forward and holding hands, sometimes looking at each other,
sometimes not, just being together, close. Julie needed that as much as
Thomas did.
Julie’s mother had been killed when Julie was twelve. Her father had
died eight years later, two years before Bobby and Julie had been
married. She’d been only twenty at the time, working as a waitress to
put herself through college and to pay her half of the rent on a studio
apartment she shared with another student. Her parents had never been
rich, and though they had kept Thomas at home, the expense of looking
after him had depleted what little savings they’d ever had. When her
dad died, Julie had been unable to afford an apartment for her and
Thomas, to say nothing of the time required to help him cope in a
civilian environment, so she’d been forced to commit him to a state
institution for mentally disabled children. Though Thomas never held it
against her, she viewed the commitment as a betrayal of him.
She had intended to get a degree in criminology, but she dropped out of
school during her third year and applied to the sheriffs’ academy. She
had worked as a deputy for fourteen months by the time Bobby met and
married her; she had been living on peanuts, her life-style hardly
better than that of a bag lady, saving most of her salary in hope of
putting together a nest egg that would allow her to buy a small house
someday take Thomas in with her. Shortly after they were married when
Dakota Investigations became Dakota & and Dakota, they brought Thomas to
live with them. But they worked irregular hours, and although some
victims of Down’s syndrome were capable of living to a degree on their
own, Thomas needed someone nearby at all times. The cost of three daily
shift qualified companions was even more than the cost of his care at a
private institution like Cielo Vista; but they would have borne it if
they could have found enough reliable help.
When it became impossible to conduct their business, have a life of
their own, and take care of Thomas, too, they brought him to Cielo
Vista. It was as comfortable a care institution that ever existed, but
Julie viewed it was her second betrayal of her brother. That he was
happy at Cielo Vista, even thrived it did not lighten her burden of
guilt.
One part of The Dream, an important part, was to have time and financial
resources to bring Thomas home again.
Bobby looked up from the scrapbook just as Julie asked, “Thomas, think
you’d like to go out with us for a while?
Thomas and Julie were still holding hands, and Bobby his
brother-in-law’s grip tighten at the suggestion of an excursion.
“We could just go for a drive,” Julie said.
“Down to the Walk on the shore. Get an ice cream cone. What do you
say?”
Thomas looked nervously at the nearest window, who framed a portion of
clear blue sky, where white sea gulls oddly swooped and capered.
“It’s bad out.”
“Just a little windy, honey.”
“Don’t mean the wind.”
“We’ll have fun.”
“It’s bad out,” he repeated. He chewed on his lower lip. At times he
was eager to venture out into the world, but other times he withdrew