"When she comes out of it and realizes she's in the Tower, she'll get even more depressed," Mary Beth said. "You know how she is about the Tower," she reminded Lawrence and Lulu. They nodded.
"Maybe she won't be up there long," Lulu said hopefully. Despite the way Megan had often treated her, Lulu really liked and needed Megan.
"You know, when someone goes up there, they usually don't come down," Mary Beth reminded her. Lulu started to cry and rock in her chair.
I reached over and took her hand in mine.
"Maybe it will be different for Megan," I said, stroking her hand. "She's pretty tough and knows how to take care of herself around here, right?"
Lulu smiled and nodded.
"Why give her false hope?" Mary Beth insisted.
"What do you mean?" I asked. "They can't keep her up there forever."
"If they can't make any progress with you upstairs, sometimes they move you someplace else," Lawrence said. "Someplace where they handle only serious cases, not a rich person's country club clinic like this."
"Oh."
"I'm glad you found your voice," he said, smiling. "It's really nice to hear you talk again."
"Yes," Mary Beth said and I noticed she looked a lot healthier--like she had gained a couple of pounds since I had first arrived. Lawrence told me she had made significant progress in that she finally admitted she wasn't overweight. The end of her ordeal was in sight.
I felt bad for Megan. Despite her bouts of nastiness, missed her. I told Lawrence how I felt when we went for a walk together after my work in art therapy. Lulu trailed along with us. She seemed to be the most lost without Megan, who in her strange fashion had defended and looked after Lulu as much as she ridiculed her.
"Poor Lulu. Maybe we shouldn't call her that anymore, Lawrence."
He laughed.
"I think it's gotten so she wouldn't answer if someone called her Edith," he said.
"I'm going to start doing that. She's never going to get better if we don't help her face reality, too."
"You're right," Lawrence said. "Here you are worrying about everyone else's problems but your own."
"You once told me helping others helps you, too."
"Yes," he said, smiling, "I did, but that was more of an excuse to get you to let me be involved with you more."
"You didn't need an excuse for that, Lawrence," I said and his smile widened.
We sat on our favorite stone bench, the one that had become a symbol of the boundary for me, because beyond it was the hill that led to the view of the ocean, a view that put ice into my veins.
Lulu walked around us, occupying herself with wildflowers.
"I'm looking for a four-leaf clover," she said. "My daddy told me it brings good luck. If I find one, give it to him when he comes to visit."
"Why doesn't her father ever visit her?" I asked. Lawrence turned to me, a strange look on his face. "I thought you knew," he said. I shook my head. "I know her parents got a divorce. At least that's what
Megan said."
"Yes, but not long after that, her father was killed in a car accident. Lulu won't believe it. She never went to the funeral."
"Megan never said--"
"Megan can be cruel, but not that cruel; at least to Lulu," Lawrence said. "Maybe . . maybe she didn't want it to be true. She seems to hate all men, especially all fathers, but I think she really wants to love one, to have a real father. We all know what her father did to her. He put her here. Just like my father put me here," he added angrily.
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