Chapter 11 - Percival’s Question
Percival did not care about Crown Street Collateral.
He cared whether Gwendolyn believed him.
Dr. Maya Hart, his therapist, told us:
“Children often organize complicated events around relationship injury rather than legal facts.”
Meaning:
The forty-two-thousand-dollar ring mattered less to him than Aunt Gwen saying:
Make him give it back.
At his third session, he asked:
“Is Aunt Gwen mad?”
“At you?” I asked.
Dr. Hart looked at me.
I stopped.
Let her guide.
She said:
“Who do you think she’s mad at?”
Percival moved his toy airplane across the carpet.
“Me.”
“Why?”
“Wedding stopped.”
“What made the wedding stop?”
“I pointed.”
Dr. Hart said:
“What happened before you pointed?”
He thought.
“Grandma hit.”
“And before?”
“Ring gone.”
“And where was ring?”
“Thayer.”
There.
Then:
“Did you put it there?”
He laughed despite himself.
“No.”
The logic slowly rearranged.
Then he looked at me.
“Daddy hit Grandma.”
“Yes.”
“Did that stop wedding?”
“No.”
“Did Grandma hit me stop?”
“It contributed to everything becoming unsafe.”
He frowned.
Then:
“Whose fault?”
I wanted one answer.
Thayer.
Easy.
Dr. Hart saved me.
“Sometimes lots of adults make different choices, and one child is not responsible for sorting them.”
Percival accepted that better than I did.
That afternoon, Gwendolyn asked to see him.
Dr. Hart said:
“Not yet.”
Gwen nodded.
No argument.
Good.
Then my mother.
Estelle’s attorney negotiated her misdemeanor battery case.
Because she struck a child.
No prior record.
No serious physical injury.
She entered a guilty plea rather than fighting.
Sentence:
One year probation.
Parenting/grandparent education.
Thirty hours community service.
No unsupervised contact with Percival unless I agreed and his therapist supported.
No jail.
Appropriate.
My case:
Pretrial diversion.
Anger-management classes.
Twenty hours community service.
No unlawful contact with Estelle.
Dismissal after successful completion.
I accepted.
Percival learned both.
“Grandma got trouble?”
“Yes.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Thayer?”
“Different case.”
He sighed.
“Too many court.”
Agreed.
Then:
“Does ring get trouble?”
I smiled.
“No.”
“Good.”
May you like
At six, he still understood objects were not people.
Adults could learn.
