Casey gawked at her, and Sarah couldn’t help smiling nastily back at her. “Told you what they did, did they? How they refused to let him go to college so you could have a nice new luxury car and a trip to Europe, how he had to turn-down a full scholarship to Berkeley because your folks refused to help him in any way, how they want a bubble-head like you to go to college, not him, the only brain in the whole damn family? Enjoying your nice birthday presents, are you? You’d better, because that was your brother’s future; think about it next time you and the rest of your slutty friends pile into your nice new car, or when you go slutting around Europe next year, and wonder how the hell your brother’s supposed to make a life when you’ve taken his future from him; I hope it gives you a warm glow inside. You have to go now, I’m sure there’s a boy somewhere you haven’t shown your ass to yet!”
She drove home in shock, numb with the realisation of the truth she’d heard in Sarah’s voice, her words running around in her mind, thinking about what she’d said, remembering how they treated him; like he was invisible. When was the last time she’d said ‘thank you’ when he’d done something for her, or said ‘good morning’ to him, or even just smiled at him, included him just once? She had time for everyone, but never any for her brother.
Sarah was right; they’d driven him out. They never gave him anything, or bought him anything, or did anything for him, or took him out anywhere; it was always just Mom, Dad and her. Robbie had never been on vacation with them, preferring to stay with Joey; at least, that’s what the parents had always said; but supposing they had told him he couldn’t, or worse, never even bothered to ask him along?
The birthday present had been a mean, shitty masterpiece, calculated to hurt, she now realised, Mom and Dad giving him a T-shirt, smirking like they were sharing the best joke in the world, with her giggling and rubbing it in because she’d just got a car. Now she remembered with painful clarity the hurt, lost look he’d had, and yet he’d still thanked them politely, humbly even, even though his face told them plainly that he’d come to the final recognition of just how little he meant to them. She and her parents had taken their meanest, lowest shot in a lifetime of petty meanness, and yet he’d still thanked them. In that one incident, Robbie had shown more grace under fire, more character than all the rest of his family, more courage in the face of adversity than the rest of them combined were capable of.
She thought about how thoughtless and malicious they’d all been to him all his life; Birthday, Casey gets an iPod, Robbie gets a book, Christmas, Casey gets a laptop, Robbie gets a book, next birthday Casey gets a car, Robbie gets a T-shirt, her parents no doubt chuckling inside at the stricken look on his calm face each time he got handed the shit-end of the stick, nobody ever going out on a limb and actually being nice to him, not once.
She remembered one occasion when she’d had to go into his room (room, hah! What a joke that was, an awkward little hutch of waste space that he’d been shoehorned into because there was no need to waste a real bedroom on him; it was only Robbie…) for some reason or other, and had smirked at how little there was in there, no trophies or medals, no TV or laptop, no stereo, nothing; God, he was such a loser! She’d noted on his little bookshelf 3 copies of the same book, all new looking, and giggled at the fact that they’d given him the same cheap book 3 years in a row, because no-one had ever bothered to ask him if he already had it. On his dresser, some battered plastic toy soldiers, and she’d sneered at him for being so juvenile; now she realised that they were there because they were all he had. Now it suddenly didn’t seem so funny, mute evidence of just how little they thought of him. And what had she just said to her parents? ‘It’s only Robbie…..’
Casey stopped the car in a side street and, for the first time in her life, cried for her shy, soft-spoken, diffident big brother, for tuning him out, for hurting him so often, and for so long it had become second nature to her, to all of them. She cried for all the hurt and neglect, a lifetime of love and caring they’d withheld from him, for giving him a lifetime of not very much at all, realisation of her guilt drilling into her. When she got home, she ran into his tiny room and looked around.
His battered closet stood empty, and she realised it was her old Barbie ‘Princess’ closet, her discarded child’s closet handed to him to save them from actually having to give him something of his own, yet another reminder of how little he meant to them. His few possessions, his books and toy soldiers were gone; he’d taken them with him, and now there was no evidence he’d ever been there. Robbie really was gone for good. Casey sat on his bed and cried hot, useless tears, a pointless atonement that brought no solace, finally understanding what it really meant when you took everything from someone and left them with nothing.
When Joey came in, Sarah filled him in on what had happened, and for once didn’t rein him in when he let loose a string of invective, feeling like doing the same thing herself. “Joey, Robbie’s going to stay with us for a while, so I want the two of you to clear out the spare bedroom, fix it up for him, OK? I’m calling your uncle Frank, I need a favour.”
When they came down from setting up the room, Sarah sat Robbie down. “Robbie, I think I know what you can do. My brother has a good friend who owns a video game company, software, that kind of thing, in the San Francisco Bay Area, Silicone Valley. I’ve asked him to talk to his friend, because Joey tells me you know a lot about game software and programming, it might be the place for you. Are you OK with that?”
He stammered out his thanks; this was beyond his wildest dreams, the most anybody had ever done for him…
Sarah had her brother call Robbie and talk to him, and he in turn conferenced-in his friend, Steve Vargas of GameStx. Steve had a long, genial but searching conversation with Robbie, then asked him if he’d excuse him, he would like to talk privately with Frank, That evening, Frank called Sarah, and told her what Steve Vargas had told him.
“Sally, I’ve never seen Steve so excited. Your young man is a genuine, bona-fide, dyed-in-the-wool software genius! Steve’s astounded that someone who’s not even graduated from High School could have such an instinctive grasp of high-level programming like Robbie has. Right now, Steve is trying to work an accounting deal to snare Robbie before Activision, Eidos or Microsoft find out about him and try and lure him in. I’m negotiating with Steve, because I think Robbie is going to be the next big thing in the games and gaming software world, and I want him to get the best deal possible — the last thing I want is you chasing my scalp!”
Sarah listened with her mouth hanging open, delighted at the possibilities opening up for young Robbie at last.
“I’m holding out for an initial salary for him of $8, 000 a month, from the way Steve was watering at the mouth, I think young Robbie will be worth that and more, so I’m sticking to my guns while Steve hums and haws, mostly for form’s sake, I promise you; Robbie will be a valuable asset, and I know he’ll go places, fast. Steve knows this too, so he’ll cough-up, I promise you! When Robbie gets out here, he’ll stay with me and Caitlin until he can find a place of his own–or not; I trust you and Joey’s feelings about this boy, if you think he’s a good kid, so will Caitlin and I.”
The next day Steve Vargas called Robbie and offered him a position as a developer at their site in Palo Alto, on a salary of $96, 000. In addition, he would be staying with Frank and his family in Morgan Hill until he could get his own place. Steve gave him as much time as he needed to put his affairs in order, and promised him some juicy projects to sink his teeth into as soon as he arrived.
Robbie was a little shell-shocked at how quickly things had moved, and tried to stammer out his thanks to Sarah and Joey, but Sarah pooh-poohed his thanks, saying that was what family did for each other, and she was proud of both her boys. Joey punched him on the shoulder and threw him a coke to drink a toast, and that was all that needed saying
Robbie had a couple of weeks before he went, and he spent them with Sarah and Joey, Sarah buying him clothes and stuff he’d need, just hanging out, being part of a proper family for a while. The last thing Sarah did for him was something he never found out about.
Casey answered the knock at the door, and opened it to find Sarah standing there. She called her parents and asked Sarah to come in; Sarah, somewhat icily, politely declined.
“Steve, Angie, Your son needed $500 for air fare, I gave it to him, I would like it refunded please. He asked me not to divulge his whereabouts, and I promised not to; I take my promises seriously; in fact, I’m not too certain where he went myself. I would however just like to add a postscript of my own; Robbie is a quiet, sweet, serious, considerate, phenomenally talented young man with a genius-level IQ, which you’d know if you had ever bothered to attend even one of his guidance counselling sessions, or even just spoke to him once in a while; instead, you tried to crush him. God help you, you nearly succeeded.”
“He’s gone a long way away, and he’s never coming back; you nearly destroyed him, and he has no happy memories of here or you, nothing to come back to. He give me a message to give to you; ‘Stay away from me,’ and that goes for you as well, young lady.”