Confronted with Nick’s generosity and the surrender of his best-in-class lawyer, Caroline was hard-pressed to continue her breezy refusal to appear in Aaron Rosenbloom’s office with her children. Initially, she had refused, insisting to Nick that it was unwise to focus them so thoroughly on the catastrophe of the fracturing of the family when in actuality she and the children were conducting themselves at home as though Hugh were merely absent as he had been so often during the marriage. Nick had been surprised by the characterization. To him, Hugh had seemed ubiquitously present, but then what did he really know about Caroline’s family life? He had only a peeping Tom’s knowledge, he supposed. Caroline claimed that Allie was completely unaware of any change, being too young to see beyond her need for her mother, and Noah’s new penchant for silence came more from the fear of change than the reality of it. Noah and she were very close, she reminded Nick. She knew how her son was feeling and they were really doing just fine. Nick needed to fret less.

Nick listened. Noah and his mother had always appeared close: Noah was certainly attached to his sister.  He wanted to accept Caroline’s expression of maternal authority, but there were times when she seemed inexplicably giddy despite the seriousness of events. It was as though she was skimming along the surface of things, especially when he pressed her about things she did not wish to address, like Noah’s altered behavior or his custodial relationship with his sister. Yet in the next conversation, she would as likely be utterly impassioned, crazy with rage at Hugh or one of the previous lawyers. Currently, she was on the sweetest terms with Win, a love affair of convenience perhaps, but one which Nick nurtured with the diligence of Friar Laurence. He asked her once when she had seemed particularly distracted if she were taking medication of any kind but she had been very defensive. Caught off guard, she had stumbled in her explanation. Yes and no. Her PCP had given her something for the ankle, a new painkiller which worked quite well and had no side effects She barely ever had to take one now.  Her therapist had prescribed a tranquilizer, just Valium,  five milligrams, but she found the medication unnecessary most of the time. She was fine; it was sweet of him to be concerned but now that Win  Abrams was in her corner, she would most certainly no longer require that drug either.

Nick believed her, some of the time at least. It was so much easier to believe her when she reassured him. It seemed right and just; he had sacrificed his own champion, Abrams, to his one-time enemy to guarantee her good health and therefore his son’s. For Noah, he thought whenever he needed to explain his actions to himself. But justice was a slippery thing. Nick recalled Win’s glib assurance that he could revert back to Nick’s corner if Nick and Caroline ever went to the mat over custody of Noah. “I was your lawyer first,” Win had boomed, his florid face flushed with emotion. But what emotion? Nick felt himself the willing babe. He accepted without believing. Win’s current motive was obviously the hefty retainer. Logically it did not follow that he would return as Nick’s advocate against Caroline if he was in possession of any portion of that retainer. The best Nick could hope for was that he would refuse to represent Caroline as well and he was not certain Win had that kind of professional integrity. His reputation would concern him however and Nick was an influential man in Boston. The emotional connection that had existed between them seven years earlier and had been of such solace to Nick then had apparently been woven of gossamer stuff. Nick chided himself; he had been naive to think it had been a friendship. Win had forgotten it except as it showed in his willingness to handle Caroline’s divorce himself instead of turning her over to an associate. And Caroline was a wealthy woman in her own right. Nick’s own sway over Abrams, intense and compelling as it may have once been was a backdrop to the interesting and potentially lucrative drama unraveling in Shorter v Shorter. Nick understood that he was marginal here and accepted the trade-off, but he did intend to collect something from Caroline by pressing her to see Rosenbloom.

Nick had accompanied Caroline to her first meeting with Abrams and had been on the phone with him twice since then. Now and then he reflected on the absurdity of these developments but Caroline’s father, who was footing Win’s bill, was almost as explosive as his daughter. There was no point in letting him be the intermediary, that had been tried, and Nick did not wish all the effort that he had put in so far to come to naught. So he continued to find himself more deeply involved in his ex-wife’s divorce. Intellectually he knew that he was best suited to handle the role of go-between, but there were times when he felt such a fury that this obligation fell to him. Would he never be free of this weak woman? No, he expected not, not so long as she was connected to Noah.

Eventually, he did prevail upon her to take the children to the therapist but she had insisted that he join them. So he left work to meet her at Aaron’s Devonshire Street office. She appeared, late of course, and accompanied by a particularly fitful Allie, and a particularly sullen Noah. Noah barely greeted his father and when they were shepherded into the lobby, he took a seat by the window where he could stare out through the blinds and remain emotionally detached from the group. Rosenbloom was an expert in family therapy; he specialized in situations involving problem children and he was quickly called upon to demonstrate his expertise when Allie threw a tantrum at the door and inexplicably refused to enter the office with her mother, who promptly attempted to drag her. The doctor quickly intervened to demonstrate a painless restraining hold for Caroline to try on Allie. But it became unnecessary when Noah appeared beside the child and took her hand, instantly quieting her.

“She just doesn’t want to go in alone,” he mumbled without lifting his head and then he and his sister led the others into the office, where Noah promptly took the seat nearest the window and again stared out through the blinds.

Nick was powerfully distressed by these events and his depression continued as he looked around at where he was and with whom. There they sat, this motley foursome who so resembled a nuclear family, but who were in actuality just fragments spliced together by genes and consanguinity, by defunct conjugality, by hopelessly obscured responsibility. It made him want to cry, but instead, he turned to compose himself by looking out the window and found Noah already there. As the doctor worked with a skittish Allie, who refused to be restrained, who kept whimpering and crawling away from her mother’s lap, Caroline’s answers to his questions were distracted. At first, she was cloying in her efforts to lure Allie into line but soon enough she became sharply impatient. Again he felt like weeping. Time ticked away. What are we doing here trapped in this room with these peculiar strangers? Nick wondered, addressing his rumination to his son.

“Caroline, let Allie alone,” he found himself suddenly snapping. Both his ex-wife and the doctor looked over in surprise. Only Noah did not turn. What can he see, Nick wondered some escape that eludes us both perhaps.  “Noah, could we have your attention?” he scolded taking control of the disarray while simultaneously thwarting his own tears.

Allie was suddenly still, Caroline silent. The cacophony had passed from the room. Even Noah had turned to join them. The therapist jumped at the opportunity to question Noah.

“Noah, your mom has been telling me that things have been relatively calm at home despite her separation from your stepdad. How do you feel about the situation? Would you tell us about your feelings?”

Noah looked quickly at his mother, who smiled at him.

“I feel sort of confused,” Noah offered with some hesitation.

His father leaned forward with it great interest. Maybe now he would begin to understand.

“Confused? How so?” asked the doctor.

“Just confused. Like when my mom cries and how am I supposed to help her?” His voice rose in plaintive appeal. “Do I go away or what?”  There was a flash of resentment in the question. Everyone in the room, including Allie, seemed so startled at Noah’s abrupt, nearly impassioned participation that they were hushed and attentive. The attention made Noah withdraw somewhat. “I’m just sort of confused.”  

“No, that’s not how he feels, Doctor. Noah is just terrific!” His mother abruptly inserted, looking piercingly at Noah. “He has been my great helper. My best friend. He is just so responsible and mature. He is always there for me. He’s not confused about that. He knows I’ve come to depend on him and that I think he is just being wonderful.”

“Do you feel wonderful about helping your mother, Noah?” The doctor asked. In his fascination, Nick held his breath.  Noah’s face clouded with discomfort.

“I don’t know,” he mumbled.

“Honey, of course, you know. We’re best friends, aren’t we? A team. You and me. Together we have been doing just fine, especially since your dad has been so supportive,”
she added the last nervously, tentatively pulling Nick in as an ally. Nick did not speak, was neither flattered nor cajoled. He stared at Caroline and then at Noah and waited with bated breath for the next stroke from the therapist. How did he get this stuff out of this child when his own father could get nothing?

“Noah, do you recognize that you are helping your mother?” the therapist asks patiently. Nick felt the tug of resentment since the question was posed in such a way as to suggest that Noah would be slow to understand.

“Yeah, especially with Allie. And sometimes when she is really tired and falls asleep on the couch,” he answered grudgingly.

“Noah, I’m surprised at you! When does that ever happen?”

“Mrs. Shorter, let’s let Noah finish.”

“But it’s not true. At least it is an exaggeration…” Caroline protested.

“We are just getting Noah’s point of you now. Sometimes one person in a family sees things differently from another. There is no deception involved, just a difference in perception,” the therapist placated her firmly.

“Noah, when is your mother falling asleep?” Nick interjected to return them to the track.

“Just during ER or Friends sometimes”, he paused. “When she’s had a G&T,” he added.

“A G&T?” Nick echoed incredulously.

“Oh, Nick, stop it. A gin and tonic. It happened once, at most. It’s not like you’re not drinking wine when he’s with you, for heaven’s sake.” Her tone changed as she shifted to her son. “Noah, really,  they are going to think that I’m a bad mother.  You know that is not the way you feel. Is it? Tell them.”

Noah looked back out his window.

“No, Ma,” he answered barely audible.

“We know you do not think your mother is a bad mother, Noah,” the therapist rejoined supportively but then he shifted in his seat. Oh no, thought Nick, our time is up. He felt the urge to insist they go into overtime. This was breakthrough stuff and now the doctor was ready to knock off. Nick attempted to communicate his frantic resistance but to no avail.

“We are going to have to stop,”  the therapist began with that ersatz regret that is so much a part of the closing routine. Nick’s regret was real. “Noah is tired, I think,” the doctor added looking compassionately from Noah to Nick, and only for a split-second, not long enough for Caroline to have seen it. She had risen, her breath hissing out in exaggerated relief as she stuffed Allison’s chubby arms into a jacket.

“She’s tired too,” Caroline offered when she found both Nick and the therapist had turned expectantly to her. She exited quickly, jerking the unwilling Allie along behind her. Nick shook the therapist’s hand with genuine appreciation

“Thank you, Doctor. I learned more today than…” he was unable to finish; then I wanted to know, he thought, affectionately stroking Noah’s head. “We’ll be back, won’t we, Noah?”

“Dad, come on,” Noah insisted in a tight voice.

“How could you?” Caroline hissed at Noah as soon as the elevator door closed on them. Nick was astonished, but when he looked at Noah, the kid had tucked his head. That slender neck. Nick’s shivered.

Caroline refused to take them again claiming it made an already bad situation worse. Noah had lied, she exclaimed, something that he was not inherently inclined to do and she for one thought it was their own fault for pressing him about feelings and things that he could not fully comprehend.

“Children say what they think we want to hear! That’s why all this child abuse stuff is so dangerous, Nick. Imagine him saying I fell asleep every night with a G&T? You’d think he had to put Allie to bed himself! Nick, this is not good for him and I for one will not be schlepping in there to that fat guy so I can hear my son lying about me, right in front of me. I have troubles enough, thank you!”

Those were her final words on the subject. Nick could not budge her and eventually despaired of trying. He made an appointment with Aaron for himself and Noah. But then he found Noah unwilling. “She won’t like it, Dad,” he pronounced without antecedent.

“It doesn’t affect her,” Nick had snapped in return. But the warning had soured the venture.

In the end, Noah reverted to a stubborn non-compliance in Rosenbloom’s office and when his father pressed him afterward he was hostile.

“Look she doesn’t want me to go. The hell with it,  Dad.  The guy looks like Jabba the Hutt. He can’t help. Everything is just line.  Leave me alone, okay?”

It could only have been desperation that prompted Noah to such hostility to his father. Nick felt a desperate compassion in return. He gave it up, hoping to salvage what he could from Caroline’s goodwill because of his surrender of the lawyer and working to repair and make stronger his relationship with his son. The very least he could do was to leave Noah alone. Leave him alone and provide an unqualified place for some quiet, for R&R, away from the noise and the heat of battle.

copyright ©Meredith Powers 2015-2025