하이라이트 친 부분들
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“You started this school so your son, who’d been discarded, would have a place to go,” I say, putting on my coat. Gary, now well into adulthood, has significant challenges, much like Owen. “Do you think he’d be accepted here today?” Those are fighting words. I can’t help it—I am thinking how difficult this is going to be for Owen. To her credit, Sally doesn’t rise to battle. “Look, I’m sorry,” she says, quietly. “Times change. We’re serving a need and serving it well. Just not anymore for someone like Owen.”
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The line goes quiet for a few seconds. Cornelia’s on her knees, but she will not beg or speak the words forming in her tightening gut: “Would it kill you just to have him come over and eat pizza, just to sit with Phillip and his precious little brother, with his precious little oh-so-normal friends, and just be? He’s gentle as can be, he really is, he wouldn’t hurt anyone. And we’ll reciprocate, tenfold. For God’s sake, he just wants to have a friend.” But, of course, she doesn’t say that—no one would. And Helen shuts the door: “So that’s the problem, Cornelia. That one night is already taken.” Cornelia’s not sure she can speak. But she does. “Right, Helen. I understand.”
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“Sometimes people are scared of people who are not like them. They can be mean and ignore them sometimes.” His voice goes soft as he says this last sentence, like he’s talking to himself, in an empty room, and then he looks up, almost surprised to see the full house. “That would make you scared or sad if someone treated you that way, wouldn’t it?”
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But we’re not all talking about the same thing, here. This is their job, but it’s her life. For them, it’s a contribution; for her, total commitment.
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FATHER: LISTEN, LAD. I’VE BUILT THIS KINGDOM UP FROM NOTHING. WHEN I STARTED HERE, ALL THERE WAS WAS SWAMP. ALL THE KINGS SAID I WAS DAFT TO BUILD A CASTLE IN A SWAMP, BUT I BUILT IT ALL THE SAME, JUST TO SHOW ’EM. IT SANK INTO THE SWAMP. SO, I BUILT A SECOND ONE. THAT SANK INTO THE SWAMP. SO I BUILT A THIRD ONE. THAT BURNED DOWN, FELL OVER, THEN SANK INTO THE SWAMP. BUT THE FOURTH ONE STAYED UP. AN’ THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE GONNA GET, LAD—THE STRONGEST CASTLE IN THESE ISLANDS. Owen would do the scene, often wanting to do the father. And then laugh uproariously. Could barely make it to the end. And, after one such bout, with Cornelia and I present, he said, matter-of-factly, “That’s my life.”
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When Jonathan asked from the speakerphone what Owen thought Aladdin was about, he said, “It’s about finally accepting who you really are. And being okay with that.” That was really Owen talking about himself, though he was using Aladdin as his surrogate. That was the moment he saw it. Now, we could see it, too. It was his inner hero, beginning to emerge.
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Who will care for him? Who will know that he’s not angry, just confused? Who will be there, to remember which voice he’s doing and then offer the next line?
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“And, listen. You and her in the car. Who knows where it’ll lead?” Owen smiles—he knows this answer. “Home!”
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“I feel like a wooden boy, and I’ve always dreamed of feeling what real boys feel.”
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The bully today was a life we’d tried so hard to avoid.