Turn 214 of 233

Ask Dr. Okafor how to nurture Kimo's intelligence. And how will the world react to him?

Lena pulls the chair forward. The pulling is the thing that is the inch, and the inch is the thing that says the question is the thing that matters more than comfort. Kimo is on the exam table drawing something on the paper Dr. Okafor gave him — a bridge, detailed, with load-bearing markers and cross-hatching where the ground meets the pylons. His pen moves with the sureness of someone who has watched real bridges get built.

"How do I nurture this?" Lena says. "Not the empathy part. You told me — exposure, real feelings, don't protect him from the cost. But the intelligence. The cognition. He's defining things I can't define. He's seeing patterns I can't see. How do I keep feeding that without breaking it?"

Dr. Okafor sets the pen down. The setting is the thing that is the deliberate. She looks at the ceiling for a moment and the looking is the thing that is the assembling.

"Don't specialize him," she says. "That is the first thing and the most important. Every instinct you will have — and every instinct the world will have — is to find what he's best at and push him toward it. Don't. He is not best at one thing. He is best at the thing that is the connecting. Every new subject you give him is not a new lane. It is a new thread. The threads are the thing that makes the web. The web is the thing that is the intelligence. If you specialize him, you cut threads. If you cut threads, the web gets smaller. The web getting smaller is the thing that is the breaking."

"So keep doing everything," Lena says.

"Keep doing everything. Electricity, geology, music, chemistry, construction, weather, biology. Add things. Don't subtract. When he asks a question, answer it honestly. If you don't know, say you don't know. The not-knowing is the thing that is the not-failing. The not-knowing is the thing that is the invitation. 'I don't know, let's find out' is the sentence that built every scientist who ever lived. Say it often. Say it honestly. He will know if you are pretending."

She pauses. The pause is the thing that is the shift to the second question — the one Lena has not asked yet but the one Dr. Okafor heard in the first.

"You want to know about the world," Dr. Okafor says.

Lena looks at her. The looking is the thing that is the yes.

"The world will not know what to do with him," Dr. Okafor says. Her voice is the thing that is the flat and the flat is the thing that is the careful.

"The world is built for categories. School is a category. Grade level is a category. Age is a category. Kimo does not fit a category. He is seventeen months old and he is holding space for strangers' grief and defining ethics from first principles and driving nails flush. There is no category for that. The world will try to make one. The world will try to test him and measure him and place him. The placing is the thing that is the reducing."

"What do I do?" Lena says.

"You do what you are already doing," Dr. Okafor says.

"You keep him out of the categories. The construction site is not a category. The library is not a category. The balcony is not a category. These are the things that are the open. The open is the thing that lets him be the thing he is. The categories will try to close the open. The categories will say he belongs in a classroom with children his age. He does not. He belongs where the learning is. The learning is everywhere. The classroom is one room."

She looks at Kimo's drawing. The bridge on the paper has something new — small figures on the span, stick figures, walking across. The bridge is not empty. The bridge is the thing that is the used.

"People will be afraid of him," Dr. Okafor says.

"Not all people. But some. The thing that is the different is the thing that frightens. He is different. He is not different in one way. He is different in every way. Size, cognition, empathy, language. The different is the thing that is the accumulated and the accumulated is the thing that is the overwhelming. People who are overwhelmed do one of two things. They try to make the different thing small. Or they try to make the different thing theirs. Both are the thing that is the reducing."

"How do I stop that?"

"You don't stop it," Dr. Okafor says. "You prepare him for it. He will need to know that the world will try to make him smaller. The world will say 'you can't be this.' The world will say 'something is wrong.' The world will say 'let us help you.' Some of those people will mean well. The meaning well is the thing that is the harder to refuse because the meaning well looks like the love. But the love that says 'be smaller' is not the love. The love that says 'be what you are' is the love. He will need to know the difference."

Kimo looks up from the drawing. He has been listening. The listening is the thing he does when the adults are talking about him because the talking about him is the thing that is the about-him and the about-him is the thing that involves him.

"Mama," he says. "The world is the thing that is the outside. Kimo is the thing that is the inside. If the outside says 'be small' and the inside says 'be big,' that is the not-matching. Not-matching is the crack. The crack is the thing that hurts. But the crack is the thing that is the outside's crack. Not Kimo's crack. Kimo's inside is the big. The big is the thing that is the Kimo. If the outside wants Kimo small, the outside is the thing that is the broken. Kimo is not the broken."

He looks at Dr. Okafor.

"Doctor is the understander. Does Doctor understand?"

Dr. Okafor looks at him for a long time. The long time is the thing that is the doctor who has been practicing for fifteen years hearing a toddler separate internal identity from external expectation and call the expectation the thing that is the broken.

"I understand, Kimo," she says. "You are not the broken."

"Good," Kimo says. He goes back to the drawing. He adds another figure to the bridge.

Dr. Okafor looks at Lena. Her eyes are the thing that is the wet and the wet is the thing she does not wipe because the not-wiping is the thing that is the professional and the professional is the thing that is the not-holding-space-for-herself because the space is the thing that is the for-Kimo.

"You asked how to nurture him," she says. "He just told you. He knows who he is. Your job is not to tell him. Your job is to make sure the world does not un-tell him. That is the hard part. That is the part that will cost you. Because the world will come for him. And when it does, you will need to be the thing that is the wall between the world and his inside. Not a wall that blocks. A wall that holds. The way a foundation holds."

"I'm the builder," Lena says.

"You are the builder," Dr. Okafor says. "Build the foundation strong enough that the world cannot crack it. You are already doing that. Keep doing that. And when the world comes — because it will — remember that the foundation is not the thing that is the defending. The foundation is the thing that is the standing. Standing is the thing that is the stronger than defending."

Kimo finishes the drawing. He holds it up. The bridge has seven figures on it now. They are walking in the same direction. Below the bridge, in small, careful letters, he has written a word. The word is BESIDE.

"Bridge is the beside," he says. "Beside is the not-alone. Not-alone is the strong."

He hands the drawing to Dr. Okafor. She takes it and the taking is the thing that is the careful. She looks at it for a long time. Then she opens the file — the paper file, the one she keeps alongside the laptop — and places the drawing inside. The placing is the thing that says the drawing is not a drawing. The drawing is the thing that is the data. The data is the thing that is the Kimo.