“Maybe later? I’m tired.”
“We’ll make it quick. Coffee?”
Amanda looked at the rainy sky. Her stomach was still upset from the plane ride back that morning. “Tea would be better.”
Patty bought her a cup in a nearby café, bringing it to where Amanda stood at the window counter. “Here. Peppermint, just like you wanted. I heard about the fire. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re a tough girl.”
Amanda thought about what Pete had said, and her own experiences with teachers who called their special-education students kiddos. They were never just students.
“I’m not a girl.”
“Sorry. I should know better,” Patty said. “Want to sit?”
“I’d rather get going, if that’s okay.”
“I don’t know a good way to bring this up, Amanda, but when we met before, I noticed a few things about you.”
Amanda said nothing. She took a sip of her tea and wondered if it would be okay to just walk out. It had started to rain in earnest. Maybe Patty was the not-so-smart one, to take her motorcycle out in the rain.
“I wondered if you were diagnosed with anything.”
“No.”
“Have you had a lot of different struggles?”
“When I was little, my mother always had to comb the back of my hair. If I couldn’t see it, it didn’t exist.”
“What else?”
“Why?”
Amanda was angry at herself for saying anything at all. She wasn’t required to tell this woman her life story. She picked up her cup to go.
“Are you familiar with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders?”
Amanda stopped.
“You mean the kids with funny faces?”
“The media has gotten it so wrong. Most people with fetal alcohol don’t have the features. They don’t even know they have it. It’s a spectrum disorder, like autism.”
Amanda looked out the window. She could see every raindrop on the motorcycle.
“Most teachers don’t know about it, and specialists rarely test for it.”
“You think that’s what’s wrong with me?”
“You’d have to get evaluated.”
“Did Dennis have it?”
Patty was touched that this was where Amanda went.
“Possibly. It’s very common in institutionalized children. It’s often mistaken for other issues. Like attachment disorders.”
