It wasn’t so bad when their dad was alive. Before AJ was diagnosed with anything, his dad somehow understood him. He would tell Niko that AJ didn’t want to play football in the backyard, he just wanted to help Frankie learn to read. Or that AJ needed quiet time in his room instead of going to ride a bike and to leave him alone. Or that AJ couldn’t go play basketball because he wanted to listen to his sound machine, and that was what was fun to him even if Niko didn’t understand that. But, then, his dad, who was his hero and his best friend, died. He was a firefighter, and one day he left to go to work, and the next thingAJ knew, the captain was at their door, and his mom collapsed onto the floor.
After that, she got a job working for a rich family. Dr. Sterling and his wife, Celeste. They had two sons, Liam, the oldest, who was two years older than AJ and Niko, and then Tristan who was their age. The twins, their mom Cora, and Frankie all lived in a one-bedroom cottage on the property. She wanted to stay in San Francisco because of the school AJ was at. He was doing well there. He hadn’t been officially diagnosed with anything, but there were signs. Unlike Niko, who said his first word before he was a year old, AJ didn’t start speaking until he was three.
Despite not having to be uprooted from his school, AJ still ended up being nonverbal for two semesters. Thankfully, he was able to work his way out of it. It was Frankie who helped him, every day she would ask him if he’d “found his words yet.” He’d shake his head no, and she’d help him look for them. They would look under the couch, in the closets, and in the forest that the property backed up to. She was so earnest, so sincere in her desire to do anything and everything she could, despite being two years younger than him. Niko wanted to help, but he got frustrated. His mom just got sad. She cried a lot and drank. But she had also just lost her husband and had three children to raise.
But little Frankie, teeny tiny little Frankie, who was always small for her age, would spend at least one hour every day after school patiently searching for AJ’s words. She had no idea that they were locked up in his head. Her patience, her tenacity, and her love were finally the keys that unlocked them for him.
Later, his sophomore year of high school, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s and retroactively with selective mutism pertaining to the year of silence. Then as an adult his diagnosis had been changed to Level 1 ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).
“Wow,” his sister sighed, responding to his claim of twice a day CrossFit workouts. “Well, all I can say is that it wassonice having you as a brother. Do you wantmeto break the news to Niko, or are you going to tell him?”
“Who do you think got me started?” he asked.
“Noooooo!” she cried dramatically, then laughed.
He’d always loved Frankie’s laugh. He’d actually recorded it once, with her permission. He listened to it sometimes when he was having a particularly bad trigger day. Her laugh sounded like wind chimes.
“Okay, so, the reason I called—do you know where Liam works?”
“Yes.”
“Where does he work?”
“Pine Ridge General Hospital.” AJ wondered why Frankie didn’t just call Liam and ask him this question. It seemed like a much more direct avenue to get the information.
“How long has he worked there?”
“Seven years and five months.”
“Seven years and five months?!” she repeated.
AJ checked the phone to make sure the connection was still good to see if that’s why she’d needed to repeat his response. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?!”
From her tone change, he sensed he had hurt her feelings by not sharing that information, but that was totally illogical. “You never asked.”
“Did you know he changed his last name?”
“No.”
“Has he ever mentioned anyone with the last name Davies?”
Who was Davies?AJ thought.
“No.”
“How often do you and Liam talk…or keep in touch?”
“He calls on average every sixty-two days. Texts on average every nineteen days. We haven’t emailed in four years, six months, and four days.”
Six. Six. Six. Six. Six. Six.
Who was Davies?Why had Frankie asked who Davies was?Once AJ had questions in his head, he had to solve them. They were crowding in on the sixes that were repeating in his brain, which made his head feel like it was going to explode from the pressure.
“Bye, Frankie.”
“Wait, AJ!”
