“Yeah,” I breathe. “You know when you’re standing at the edge of the water and the waves come up the sand to your feet and sometimes there’s, like, a strong wave and your whole leg gets wet? It was sort of like that. The more we were talking, it was like his feelings were the water. I could feel them all the time, but sometimes there would be a big wave and the feeling would sort of cover everything up for a moment and then go back again. But I was always myself, you know? It wasn’t like I ever became the ocean too. I didn’t get washed away.”

“Well.” Dr. Bright blinks but it’s not surprise, it’s that warm feeling again. “That is quite the analogy. I’m very pleased to hear that further exposure to Adam has made it easier to balance your own emotions with others’.” The warm solid feeling is so comforting I don’t want to tell her it’s still hard to balance with most people.

“I’m curious,” she continues, “the ocean as you describe it is often thought of as a very calm place. Does Adam make you calmer?”

“I guess so. But, I mean, sometimes waves get really big and scary too. Like, when we really started to talk about the guys who were making fun of him, there was definitely a really big wave of anger that sort of took me under for a second. I got really, really angry too and had to take some deep breaths like you taught me to calm myself down.”

“And where was your anger directed? I know in the past you’ve had a hard time with other people’s anger. It’s made you want to lash out at the source. Did you get angry at Adam?”

“Uh, no. No, I didn’t. It was—I was angry at those guys. But I was sort of angry with them to begin with. Well, not sort of. Like actually, really fucking angry.”

“Do you think you would have done something if those boys had come by in that moment?”

“I don’t know. I mean, the breathing helped, but, yeah, I mean, I was still pretty mad. But I won’t hit anyone again, I mean, I promise.”

“I know you’re trying, Caleb, but remember why you’re here. You haven’t been handling your anger—or the anger of others—particularly well,” she says gently. “I’m happy to hear that the breathing is helping you, but we still have a long way to go on that front.”

“I know. But that was ages ago. I didn’t even know what was going on at that point, that I was feeling other people’s feelings. I’m not dangerous, I promise.”

“I know you’re not dangerous, Caleb.” She smiles. “You’re a very kind boy. You would never hurt someone intentionally, I know that.”