`Oh,’ said Matthew again. Then, with a steady look, he asked:
`Did you tell him about Chocky?’
`Well, I had to – a bit. You see, I could scarcely pretend that her ideas are yours, because they certainly aren’t. He seemed interested, but not much surprised. Not nearly so surprised as I was when you first told me about Chocky. I rather got the idea he may have run across someone a bit like her before.’
Matthew showed signs of interest, but he was still cautious.
`Someone who talks to him the same way?’ he inquired.
`No,’ I admitted, `Not to him, but to someone – or it may be more than one person – that he knows. Anyway, as I said, he didn’t seem very surprised. I’m afraid we didn’t go into it a great deal, but I thought you might like to know.’
That turned out to be a promising start. Matthew returned to the subject of his Own accord (*) a couple of times. Clearly, he was more than a little fascinated by the idea of someone who found Chocky unsurprising.
It was that, as well as the prospect of reassurance it held for him, I thought, that prompted him to admit he might like to have a talk with Roy Landis, someday.
During the following week I felt even more g1a d that Landis was coming down the next Sunday, particularly when Matthew’s school report (*) arrived. While, on the whole, it was not unsatisfactory, I detected a slightly puzzled air about parts of it.
Mr Trimble acknowledged that Matthew had made progress – of a kind, but felt that he was capable of doing much better if he could confine his attention to the orthodox forms of nathematics.
Miss Toach, while she was g1a d to record that his inter – est in her subject had sharpened considerably, thought he would do better to concentrate on geography at present, and let cosmography cone later.
Mr Caffer, the physics master, WaS not entirely pleased. He wrote: `There has been a marked difference in his approach this term. If it showed itself less in a capacity to ask questions, and more in ability to absorb information, his work would improve.’
`What have you been doing to Mr Caffer?’ I asked.
`He gets annoyed,’ said Matthew. `There was one time when I wanted to know about the pressure of light, and another time when I told him I can see what gravity does, but I don’t see why it does it. I don’t think he knows why, and there were some other things, too. He wanted to know where I was getting the questions from. I couldn’t very well tell him they came out of things Chocky had told me. So he got a bit angry. But it’s all right now. I mean, it’s not much good asking him things, so I haven’t any more.’
`And there’s Miss Blayde, biology. She seems to be a bit sniffy, too,’ I said.
`Oh, I expect that’s because I asked her how people who had only one sex managed to reproduce. She said, well, everybody had only one sex, and I said what I meant was one kind of person, all alike, not different like men and women. She said that could be in some plants, but not in people. And I said not always and she said nonsense. But I said it wasn’t nonsense because I happened to know someone like that. And she said what did I mean – in that kind of voice. Then I saw it had been stupid of me to ask at all, because I couldn’t tell her about Chocky, so I shut up although she kept on wanting to know what I meant. And ever since then she sometimes looks at me very hard. That’s really all .’
Miss Blayde was not the only one to feel baffled. A little time before, trying to get some idea what type of mental protection this Chocky was, I had asked:
`Doesn’t Chocky have a homeS Doesn’t she even tell you about her mother and father, and where she lies – that kind of thingS’
`Not much,’ said Matthew. `I can’t make out what it’s like. You see, such a lot of things she says don’t meant anything.’
I said I was afraid I didn’t quite see. Matthew had frowned in concentration.
`Well,’ he said, `suppose I was quite, quite deaf and you tried to tell me about a tune – I wouldn’t be able to know what you were talking about, would . I? It’s a bit like that sort of – I think .. She does sometimes talk about her father, or her mother – but the hims and hers get mixed up, as if they were both the same.’
5
On Sunday, just before lunch, Landis’s car slid into our drive. He arrived, as becomes a with-it medical man, in a large, well-groommed Jaguar. (*)
I ma de the introductions. Mary appeared a little reserved, but Matthew, I was glad to see, seemed to take to him easily. After lunch we all adjourned to the verandah for a quarter of an hour or so, then, by arrangement, Mary took Polly off with her, I mentioned some work I must do, and Matthew and Landis were left alone together.
Tea time came, and I looked out to find Matthew still talking hard. Landis caught my eye, and decisively frowned me away. (*)
The three of us decided not to wait, which was just as well, for it was nearly six o’clock before the other two broke up their talk and joined us. They appeared to be on excellent terms. Matthew in rather better spirits, I thought, than he had been lately; Landis inclined to be quietly reflective.
We let the children have their supper first, and get along to bed. Then, when we sat down to our meal there was a chance to talk. Mary opened up with:
`Well, you two certainly did have a session. I do hope Matthew wasn’t too tedious.’
Landis regarded her for a moment, and shook his head.
`Tedious!’ he repeated. `Oh, no. I assure you he wasn’t that.’ He turned to me. `You know, you didn’t tell me the half of it,’ he said, with a touch of reproof.
`I don’t suppose I know half of it,’ I replied. `I told you most of what I do know, but to find out more I’d have had to press him for it. I thought that might be unwise – I’m not so old as to have forgotten how intrusive one’s parents’ interest can seem. That’s why I asked you to come. Quite apart from your professional experience, I hoped he’d feel freer to talk to you. Apparently he did.’
`He did indeed,’ Landis nodded. `Yes, I think you probably were wise not to push him – though it meant that I felt a bit ill-briefed to start with. I found him more puzzled and more in need of someone to talk about it than you had led me to expect. However, he’s got a lot of it off his chest (*) now, and I think he’ll be feeling the better for that, at least.’
He paused a moment, and then turned to Mary
`Tell me, Mrs Gore, normally – that is to say before this Chocky business set in – would you have called him a highly imaginative boy?’
Mary considered.
`I don’t think so,’ she said. `As a little boy, he was very suggestible. I mean, he was always afraid of dark rooms – but that’s not quite the same thing, is it? No, I’d not say he was highly imaginative – just ordinarily.
Landis nodded.
`An open mind is a difficult thing to keep. I must admit that from what David told me I rather suspected he might be an imaginative child who had been rea ding too much fantastic stuff – to a point where he was having difficulty in distinguishing it from reality. That set me on the wrong track…’
`He must have read some. They all do,’ I put in, `but his taste in fiction really runs more to simple adventure stories.’
`Yes, I got on to that fairly soon. So I changed my line of thought … and then had to change it again.’
For quite a long pause he toyed with the cold meat on his pate until Mary became impatient.
`But what do you think it is now?’ she asked.
Landis delayed another moment or two before he looked up. When he did so, he stared at the opposite wall with a curiously far away expression.
`After all,’ he said, `you are not consulting me professionally. If you were, I would say it is a complex case needing more than a short examination can reveal: I would try to escape a direct and clear answer. But I a nm going to be unprofessional. I am goIng to confess that I don’t know…