600 Hours of Edward

say.
    “Yeah, OK,” she says, and she sets the umbrella down.
    She steps into the house and takes a sweeping look around the small living room. To her left are the two bedrooms, one of which I sleep in, the other of which holds my computer and desk. Dead ahead is the bathroom. To her right are the kitchen and the dining room. Through the kitchen and downstairs is the basement.
    “This is a cute little house, Edward. You keep it so clean.”
    “Yes.”
    “Can I sit down?”
    “Yes.”
    She picks the love seat along the west wall of the house. I pick the couch that runs perpendicular to it and the cushion farthest from her.
    “Edward, I want to thank you properly for that…What is it called? That Blue Flash? Anyway, I want to thank you properly for that. You’ve made Kyle a very happy little boy.”
    “Blue Blaster.”
    “Blue Blaster! Yes,” Donna Middleton says, laughing. “Anyway, Kyle has had so much fun on that thing. He’s bummed that he can’t ride it today in all this rain.”
    “Where is he?”
    “At home, soothing himself by playing PlayStation Two.
Guitar Hero
. I had to get out of there. There is only so much ‘Slow Ride’ I’m willing to listen to.”
    “Foghat.”
    “Is that who it is?”
    “Yes. I’ve never played
Guitar Hero
. But it’s definitely Foghat.”
    “You should come over some time and play it. It’s fun in small doses. I’m terrible at it.”
    “Does it have Matthew Sweet or R.E.M.?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Those are my favorites.”
    “I like R.E.M. I haven’t heard of Matthew Sweet, I don’t think.”
    “He had that song ‘Girlfriend.’ That was his big hit.”
    “Nope, don’t recognize it. Why do you like those guys so much?”
    No one has ever asked me that question.
    “I watched a lot of MTV several years ago. I liked the video for the R.E.M. song ‘Losing My Religion’ and—”
    “That’s a really good song.”
    “Yes. So I started listening to more of their songs, and Michael Stipe, their lead singer, uses really interesting word combinations.”
    “Interesting. What about the other guy?”
    “Matthew Sweet?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I don’t know, I guess. He sings a lot of songs that are sullen, and I feel that way sometimes. He is also really good at melodies, and I like those. Do you think there’s a chance that he is on
Guitar Hero
?”
    “Well, it’s Kyle’s game. He could tell you everything that’s on it, how well he scored, the words to the songs. Until that Blue Blaster showed up,
Guitar Hero
was just about all he did, other than sleeping, eating, and going to school.”
    I give Donna Middleton a half smile.
    “Edward, can I ask you a question?”
    “Yes.”
    “What do you do? Do you have a job?”
    “No, I don’t work. I do things around the house. I paint the garage. I build things. I keep track of the weather. I watch
Dragnet
. Things like that.”
    “How do you pay for everything?”
    “My father does.”
    “Edward, I want to tell you something. That day at the hospital, your father told me about your condition. Does it bother you that I know?”
    “No, I heard him tell you that.”
    “Is that why you don’t work?”
    “Jobs are hard for me. I’m good at the work, but it’s hard to deal with bosses and coworkers sometimes. My therapist, Dr.Buckley, and I have been working on that. Maybe someday I could have a job again.”
    “I talk to a therapist, too. Life is hard. Sometimes, it helps to talk about it, don’t you think?”
    “Yes.”
    – • –
    For nearly an hour, Donna Middleton sits on my love seat and tells me about her therapist, about how she put herself through nursing school after Kyle was born, about how she lived at her parents’ house in Laurel, and about how her mom helped raise Kyle. Kyle’s dad was Donna’s high school boyfriend. They had broken up after graduating from high school, and then they ran into each other at a bar several years later. She tells me about how one night changed everything for her. After she got pregnant, her old boyfriend would have nothing to do with her. That’s when she knew she was going to have to do better for her boy.
    “He looks so much like his father, and that is hard sometimes,” Donna Middleton is telling me. “But he’s such a sweet boy, and that’s not like his father at all. He’s the greatest gift of my life.”
    – • –
    In that same hour, I tell Donna Middleton about my therapy, about my difficulties with my father, about how I