Family Matters
David Sourcil came back to our table bringing two mugs of black coffee. I was aware I desperately needed caffeine and sugar. The man sitting in front of me was staring at his mug. Suddenly he said:
-This is so embarrassing. I’m really sorry. You’re such a kind person and you barely know me and my family and here I am, asking you a big favour…
I had been misinterpreting his behaviour. What I had taken for superiority wasn’t that at all. It was terrible embarrassment. David bent his head to the side and smiled at me briefly. He looked very young now. Thirty-two, thirty-three, but he must have been older. He had a fifteen-year-old son.
-Yours is an extra-ordinary family and I’m sincerely glad to have met you all. And I guess I could find some time to teach Gwen maths and science, since I’m more and more interested in indigo children. But I can’t deny you really took me off guard. Besides I’m very curious to know why you are in favour of your daughter’s moving to Portland whereas your ex wife isn’t.
-We were never married but that’s not the point. See, Linda and I split mainly because of the way we want to raise our children. She thinks out kids should try and mingle among other children, and she wants them to spend as much time as possible with their peers. I guess Jett is an adorable kid, he gets on with everybody, he’s kind, he’s got a lot of friends. He likes going to school, so I’m totally ok with him being surrounded by “normal” kids if that’s what he wants. But Gwen, well, Gwen is a completely different person. She hates school, she hates most of her teachers and schoolmates. She needs to be constantly challenged and she isn’t. Therefore I’ve always been in favour of her quitting school. She has to study with someone who can stimulate her to do her best. And of course I want her to have friends, but obliging her to go to school doesn’t work. She’s extra-ordinary, she’s unique. She will always be different, isolated. It pains me but that’s exactly what is going to happen and Linda doesn’t want to come to terms with it. I know she’s her mother, and I understand her need to protect her, but Gwen’s unhappy now and we gotta do something about it.
David’s eyes shone as he was talking of his daughter. He seemed to have a deeper understanding of her and her desires. Jett was thin and tall and sociable just like Linda, and Gwen was probably very similar to her father, so terribly shy that she risked appearing aggressive and rude. We were on our way back to the departments.
-Linda hasn’t changed her mind yet, David went on, but if I tell her that you’re available she will have to accept Gwen’s moving here and quitting school. The thing is last week end I went back to Saskatchewan to see my kids and Linda and I had another terrible fight. When I moved to Portland, one and a half year ago, we decided Linda should look for a job in Portland and would move here with the kids. But I guess she has never really looked for a job, otherwise she would have found one by now. She’s a school teacher, not an astronaut! She wants me to be as far away from the kids as possible as not to interfere with their upbringing and education. Gwen must have heard our conversation and now she’s threatening Linda she will go on a hunger strike if she can’t come and live with me.
-Oh my…
-Yes, it’s terrible. And Gwen is just as stubborn as her mother, so I have no doubt about the fact that she will do it if we don’t stop her before.
-I’m really sorry to hear this. Of course I will help you. Tell Linda I can teach Gwen and let’s hope she will let her come to Portland.
-Thanks. This is my office, would you like to come in?
I hadn’t realised we had entered the English department. As soon as David opened the door I spotted a huge, wonderful painting representing an old Indian woman whose resemblance with Devi was incredible.
- Was that painted by Gwen? It does look like her style.
-That was actually painted by her father, he said. He did it when he was eight.
I should have guessed it from the start. David Sourcil had been an indigo child, too; why did I always realise things when it was too late?
