ny his
existence. "It's no use, Jerry, I won't do it. I am _not_ deluding
myself. I heard him speak. If that was illusion, it was so real to me
that you may as well put us both away together!"

"Hysterical hallucinations--"

"Jerry, don't say that again. _I heard him say 'I want that one,
Helen!_'"

"You see! Already you're embroidering what you heard! Now he's
calling his mother by her first name. Honest, Helen, can't you see how
ridiculous you're being? If you'd thought he said da-da or goo-goo
I could have gone along with the gag, but to have him jump the whole
learning stage and come out with a complete, concise, explicit little
sentence ending familiarly with your Christian name--"

"I don't know how he did it, but he _did_ it."

Jerry rose from his seat beside her, his lips tight. "I can't honestly
say I love my own child, hard as I've tried. But I can say that I love
his mother. If I have to bankrupt myself to give Timmy proper care in
an institution, then I'll do just that, and do it gladly. But I won't
falsely place his interests above yours. He was born an idiot and he
will live and die an idiot. Nothing can change that. Timmy goes, and
that's final."

He clamped his mouth shut and turned toward the kitchen where he knew
his son sat, a stupid lump that couldn't even crawl of its own volition.
The stupid lump stood firmly in the doorway, an uncertain, placating
smile on its lips, a pup cradled in the slender arms.

"Jerry? I want _this_ one."

IV

By Timmy's sixth birthday, only his parents' adamant attitude had
saved him from becoming a side show. Once the initial household uproar
had died down and some degree of general sanity been restored, Helen
and Jerry had another bad fright. They had grudgingly allowed Clancey,
the family sawbones, to call in a psychologist friend, Philip Warwick.
The combined efforts of these two to find an explanation for Timmy
resulted in complete chaos, with Timmy suffering violent and erratic
lapses into complete idiocy for varying lengths of time. Standard tests
meant nothing, unless mutually exclusive results could be accepted as
meaningful in themselves. At length, Timmy suffered a relapse of such
duration that the parents became panic-stricken and quietly rebelled.
It was obvious that he needed an atmosphere of peace and quiet.
Confusion, excitement, or the concentrated attention of several adults
simply threw him into a relapse.

The break came when Clanc