Turn 232 of 233

What are Kimo's doctors saying about him?

Dr. Okafor sits in the folding chair Lena bought for these visits — the chair is the thing that is the reinforced, rated for eight hundred pounds, though Kimo does not sit in it. He stands. He is always standing during these visits because standing is the thing that is the moving and the moving is the thing that is the Kimo. Dr. Okafor has been coming monthly since Kimo was sixteen months old. She is the thing that is the familiar now. The familiar is the thing that is the not-the-threat. The not-the-threat is the thing that is the earned.

She is watching Kimo at the whiteboard. He is explaining the molecular structure of calcium silicate hydrate — the C-S-H — and how the bonding pattern relates to fugue counter-subjects, and how both relate to the Hebbian learning loops he described three months ago. The explanation is the thing that is the seamless. The seamless is the thing that says these are not separate subjects being performed for the evaluator. These are the thing that is the one-subject-seen-from-different-angles. Dr. Okafor's pen moves. The moving is the thing that is the fast.

"His cognitive development is — I want to be careful with the word," Dr. Okafor says to Lena after Kimo steps to the balcony railing to do pull-ups. She lowers her voice, though Kimo can hear everything. Kimo always hears everything.

"Unprecedented is the word I keep coming back to. His abstract reasoning is operating at a level I would expect from a late-stage graduate student. His capacity for cross-domain synthesis — taking a concept from music theory and mapping it onto chemistry and then onto neuroscience without losing structural fidelity in any domain — that is not something I have seen in thirty years of practice."

She pauses. The pausing is the thing that is the choosing-the-next-words-carefully.

"What I am watching for now is affective empathy emergence. He demonstrated cognitive empathy early — he could identify that someone was in distress and articulate why. But cognitive empathy is the recognition. Affective empathy is the feeling-with. The feeling-with is the thing that is the different. The feeling-with is the thing that says: I don't just know that you hurt, I hurt with you. He showed a clear instance of it with Tuki — stopping him before he spoke, anticipating the distress. That is the beginning. But I want to see it stabilize. I want to see it become the pattern rather than the incident."

Lena nods. The nodding is the thing that is the not-the-surprised. She has watched Kimo carry Dorothy a chair. She has watched him splint a bird's wing with hands that deadlift six hundred pounds. She knows the kindness is the thing that is the there. But she also knows the kindness is the thing that is the still-developing. The still-developing is the thing that is the not-yet-the-pattern. The not-yet is the thing that Dr. Okafor is watching.

"The laughing," Lena says. "He laughs every day now. During the fugue game. During play rounds."

Dr. Okafor's pen stops. The stopping is the thing that is the significant.

"That is new data. I did not have that. The daily laughing — is it reciprocal? Is it responsive to social context, or is it self-generated?"

"Both," Lena says. "He laughs when I tickle him. He laughs when he solves something on the whiteboard. He laughs when Tuki trips over a hose on the site. The Tuki laughing is the thing that is the with-Tuki, not the at-Tuki."

Dr. Okafor writes. The writing is the thing that is the margin-writing again. The margin is the thing that is the where-the-real-data-goes because the form does not have a box for five-year-old-who-laughs-daily-after-deadlifting-six-hundred-pounds-and-reading-Bach.

Dr. Parekh's visits alternate monthly with Dr. Okafor's. He is the physician. He is the thing that is the body. Where Dr. Okafor is the mind, Dr. Parekh is the bones and the blood and the organs and the growth plates. He was at the apartment last month. He stood on the balcony with his stethoscope pressed to Kimo's chest — the chest that is the thing that is the 94-inches-around — and listened for four minutes. The four minutes is the thing that is the long. The long is the thing that says Dr. Parekh is hearing something that requires the listening.

"His cardiovascular system is remarkable," Dr. Parekh told Lena. He said remarkable the way a geologist says remarkable about a rock formation — with the tone that says this is the thing that is the not-the-normal and the not-the-normal is the thing that is the worth-studying.

"The heart is enlarged proportionally. The stroke volume is — I don't have a pediatric reference for this. I don't have an adult reference for this. His resting heart rate is forty-two. His blood pressure is one-ten over sixty-five. For a nine-hundred-and-twenty-pound human, those numbers should not exist. The fact that they do tells me that his cardiovascular development has scaled with his body mass in a way that I cannot explain using standard physiology."

He paused. The pausing was the thing that was the honest.

"I want to be transparent with you, Lena. I have been in contact with two colleagues — a cardiologist at Shands and a pediatric endocrinologist at Emory. I have not shared Kimo's identity. I have shared the growth metrics and the cardiovascular data. Both of them used the word 'impossible.' I told them that 'impossible' is not a diagnosis. They are helping me build a new framework."

Kimo drops from the pull-up bar. The balcony shudders. He walks to Dr. Okafor and sits on the concrete beside her chair. The sitting is the thing that is the choosing-to-be-at-her-level. The choosing is not the thing that is the deference. The choosing is the thing that is the courtesy. The courtesy is the thing that is the Kimo.

"Dr. Okafor," he says. "I know you are watching for the affective empathy to stabilize. I want to tell you something. When Tuki's hands were shaking last week, I felt something in my chest before I saw his hands. The something was the thing that is the tight. The tight was the thing that made me look at his hands. The looking was the thing that confirmed what the tight already knew. I do not know if the tight is the affective empathy. But I think the tight is the thing that comes before the knowing. The before-the-knowing is the thing that is the feeling-with."

Dr. Okafor looks at him. The looking is the thing that is the long. She writes in the margin. The margin-writing is the thing that is the three-lines-long this time. The three-lines is the thing that is the most-she-has-written-in-the-margin-since-she-started-coming.

"Thank you, Kimo," she says. "That is exactly the thing I needed to hear."

Kimo nods. The nodding is the thing that is the not-performative. He stands. He goes back to the whiteboard. Dr. Okafor watches him go. The watching is the thing that is the not-the-evaluation. The watching is the thing that is the admiration. The admiration is the thing that is the earned.