Josh Roseman - The Clockwork Russian and Other Stories

“I did, thank you. Grandpa made you lunch? You ate it all?”

“I did eat it all,” I say. My grandmother talks to me like I am still the same age as the children at her school even though I am not. My occupational therapist explained that sometimes people who do not know how to talk to me do this. It is strange that my grandmother — who has lived with me ever since my father died — should not know the right way to talk to me. I am a person with thoughts and opinions and skills. I am very intelligent. I am not a child.

I would like to stand up and tell her she is wrong but that is not something a person should do to a grandparent. So although I think she is wrong I do not say anything.

My grandmother reminds me that we have to leave for school in half an hour. I know this already. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays I go to school from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sometimes if my grandmother picks me up afterward she will take me to O’Charley’s so that I can have their potato-and-cheese soup. It is my second-favorite non-breakfast food. We have not gone in two weeks so perhaps we will go tonight. Once I asked my grandmother if she could take me there and she said, “if I told you when we were going, it wouldn’t be a surprise, now would it?” She smiled at me. I did not smile back because I was not happy. I wanted to go to O’Charley’s. I was very unhappy but I controlled myself and did not say anything.

Because the temperature right now according to my phone is 82 degrees my grandmother asks me if I am sure I want to wear long sleeves. “Yes, I am sure,” I tell her.

“If you say so. But you’re going to be sweaty.”

Actually I will not. This shirt is an athletic shirt that I purchased with my own money from the website woot.com. It was on sale. I purchased five of them at a cost of ten dollars each and five additional dollars for shipping. Today I am wearing a shirt that is a similar blue as my secret costume so that if anyone notices the sleeve of the costume he or she will think it is part of my shirt instead. Also I have pushed up the sleeves of the costume so they are at the middle of my forearms. The reason I have chosen this athletic shirt is because my secret costume is made of a similar material and the fabric is breathable. This means I will not get as hot nor sweat as much as my grandmother thinks I will.

I am sitting in the front seat of my grandmother’s car at exactly 3:00 p.m. According to the clock on my phone she does not start the car until 3:03 p.m. However I know that we will not be late. It only takes my grandmother fifteen minutes to drive to the school.

My grandmother does not speak to me correctly but she does know that I do not want to be late. This is my second-favorite thing about her.

Although my family calls it “school” I have always known that the Keller Center is a place for adults with disabilities. My occupational therapist works here and she is my favorite person because she lets me speak to her without having to think about what she calls “tact”. She speaks to me the same way.

My occupational therapist is not here today so I instead look at the board where the classes for the day are written down. I decide that I will attend Volleyball. Playing sports was something I was good at in physical education classes in school but some of my teammates said things to me to try and hurt my feelings. Since they were only words I ignored them. One time in the locker-room a teammate pushed me into the lockers. I had a bruise on my shoulder. Because I had been struck first I decided it was acceptable for me to strike back. I broke two fingers on my left hand and was asked to leave the sports program.

Here at the Keller Center I am one of the best sports players even though I sometimes concentrate on things other than the game. However many of the other players are less able to concentrate and some of them are unable to aim the ball in the proper direction. My occupational therapist told me that I have what she calls “competitive spirit” but I do not understand why she would say this.

Sometimes the other players get in the way of the ball. I have learned to say “I’m sorry” when that happens even though I am not at fault.

The Volleyball period ends at 5:00. At this time I realize I must use the toilet and so I go into the locker-room. When I am finished I walk down the hallway toward the common room. I pass a classroom that is sometimes used for Chess. The door is open and the lights are on part-way. A student named Kate is there. Kate and I went to the same high school. She cannot communicate as well as I can, but she is very good at mathematics and science. She is crying. She is my third-favorite person at the Keller Center.

I stand in the doorway. “Kate,” I ask, “why are you crying?”

Kate’s mouth opens and closes but there is no sound. If Kate does not wish to speak to me that is her choice. However as I turn to go, she moans. This makes me turn back to her. “Kate, I am going to turn on the lights all the way.”

She does not tell me this is not a good thing. I turn the lights on all the way and take seven steps closer to her. At this distance I can see that she is wearing loose clothing. Also she has a bruise on her left cheek. “Kate, is this bruise why you are crying?”

Kate has blue-green eyes. They are full of tears when she looks up. Her mouth opens and closes again but she says nothing.

Sometimes when Kate and I would work on projects in science class she would be able to write things down that she could not say. This is the reason I ask her to wait a moment.

There is paper in the desk at the front of the classroom. There is also a pen. I bring both to Kate and put them on the desk. Kate picks up the pen and writes down what has made her cry. I read the words as the ink moves from the pen to the paper. When she is finished I take both of them. The last sentence Kate wrote asked me to please rip up the paper when I was done reading and so this is what I do. Then I return to Kate. “I will walk home with you,” I say. “I will tell my grandmother that I will be going to your house.”

Kate does not indicate if this is acceptable or not but after reading what she wrote I have decided that Kate needs someone to stand up for her.

It will be me.

My grandmother’s voice did not sound normal when I told her that I was going to Kate’s house but we were already walking when I called her. I do not like to break the rules but one thing I learned from the movies starring Steven Seagal is that sometimes a person must break the rules to do what he or she believes is the “right thing”. This is why I am walking Kate to her house. She lives much closer to the Keller Center than me. It is only a fifteen-minute walk.

I have been to Kate’s house six times this year. Kate now lives in the basement apartment which is sometimes called a “mother-in-law suite”. It has its own entry door. Kate unlocks it and lets me in. I would prefer to live in a mother-in-law suite like this. That way I would not have to share the bathroom with my mother. My grandparents have their own bathroom that is part of their bedroom. Kate’s bathroom is not like that but she does not have to share it. She allows me to use it when I come to her house.

I use Kate’s bathroom and when I return to the main room of Kate’s apartment she has removed her blouse. The ribs on her right side have a dark purple bruise on them. Kate is not wearing a brassiere and I can see her breasts and nipples. Kate looks similar to the girl in the Steven Seagal movie Under Siege 2 . That was not my favorite Steven Seagal movie, but I have seen it four times. It is often on channels like USA and FX.