I stared at the therapist. “Do you really think going over words and stuff is necessary?”

“Speech is a part of your brain that holds memory.”

“I know who I am so apparently my brain works.”

Trey shook his head at me. “It’s a little more complicated than that. Have they told you what the exact diagnosis for you is?”

I looked at him with I’m sure was a blank stare. What the hell was he talking about? Instead of answering him, I shrugged my shoulders.

“You had a brain injury; do you remember anyone telling you that Nick?”

Okay….brain injury…..was it from falling out of the plane? Wait a minute, I had that conversation with someone earlier and I didn’t fall out of a plane….okay it will come to me in a minute….how did I wind up here again??

“Nick?”

Ooops…..I spaced out!

“Do you remember what happened to you?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s on the tip of my tongue…..gimme a sec….”

Trey smirked - it wasn’t a cocky smirk; it was the kind of smirk when you feel sorry for someone….like pity.

“The stroke you had---“

“Stroke??”

“Remember, you had a concussion and time lapsed until you sought medical care and that is why you’re here.”

I rubbed my face with my good hand – the one I still could move when I wanted it to. “Okay, I remember now.”

“Anyway, the doctors said you have had Anomic Aphasia.”

“I have what?”

“Your ability to name things correctly has been affected.”

’This guy must be an idiot,’ I thought darkly. I knew what things were. I wasn’t stupid.

“I can see there’s some doubt,” Trey said as he shoved some stuff at me. “What’s this?”

I looked at what he was pointing to. Do you think I could come up with a name?

“Take your time Nick, it’ll come to you,” he said calmly.

Tears were stinging my eyes. “Why all of a sudden is this happening,” I spat back.

“It hasn’t just happened Nick, this has been coming bit by bit, you weren’t just aware of it happening.”

“Let me help you, it starts with the letter F……” He paused for a moment, watching me sweat it out. “You eat with it…” he added.

Why the heck is something that should be so simple to name isn’t coming to me?

“Always funny how attorneys move fast when a ton of money is involved,” AJ mused, sitting on the edge of the table.

“We’re just lucky that Bob and Jane’s attorney could clear his schedule to meet with our attorneys,” Kevin replied.

“But at the hotel? Couldn’t we have met someplace else?” AJ continued.

“I think this conference room is adequate,” Howie defended. “God knows I’ve met with attorneys in weird places. This will help everyone to stay focused.”

“Howie’s right,” Brian agreed. “Besides, I really didn’t feel all that comfortable meeting Nick’s dad in the bar yesterday,” he visibly shuddered at the memory.

“Get over yourself,” AJ spat. “People drink.”

“Guys, Bob’s here with the attorneys…..let’s not fight,” Howie warned as he gestured toward Kevin, Bob Carter and a small group of attorneys.

After formal introductions, the men sat on either side of the long conference table, attorneys spreading out their contracts.

“Kevin Richardson basically filled us in on what was going on---“

“Do we have a case?” AJ interrupted, looking in the opposite direction of Kevin, trying to ignore the older man’s disapproving glare.

“If you’re asking if you have a case against Louis Pearlman and Johnny Wright, yes, I would say you do,” the attorney for the guys replied.

“What about having Nick emancipated?” Bob Carter questioned quietly.

“That is an odd thing….a parent wanting a petition initiated for their child for emancipation,” the older man representing the Carter’s said as he looked down at the papers in front of him.

“In order for us to get this contract broken with Pearlman, we would need all sides in agreement of this and with Nick being a minor and with my wife being on the contract, I know for a fact that she will not budge on signing off Pearlman as a representative of our son.”

“We could file for the four of you to have your contracts voided,” the other attorney suggested.

Kevin scowled. “Leaving Nick screwed.”

“How long would it take for the emancipation petition to be processed?” Bob asked eagerly.

“I would have to draw papers up for Nick and have him sign them. And then it would have to be presented in front of a judge….I’d say two weeks, possibly three,” the attorney representing the Carters replied. “When would he be available to sign the papers?”

Pulling a cigarette from his front pocket, Bob Carter shrugged his shoulders. “As soon as you draw them up, I suppose.”

“Fine, I will be in touch with you before the end of the week.”

“The sooner the better,” Kevin agreed.

“Okay Nick, I am going to hold up a picture and I first would like you to tell me what this is.”

“How much longer do we have to do this?” I whined. It seemed like we had been at this for hours!

“We started five minutes ago,” he said, smiling.

I read his name plate…..why did I have to read his name when I should know it?

“Okay Trey, it seems like it’s been more like five hours.”

“Nick, you’re getting off topic again. Now tell me what this is.

“God was this guy persistent much?”

“Its something you can eat and you can eat it for breakfast and lunch and dinner sometimes at night too.”

“Yes, Nick you can do all of that but what is this?” he repeated his question, tapping at the picture.

God I hated it when he would tap on the picture!

“Its those things you eat when you’re hungry they’re grapes,” I sighed.

“No this isssssssss…”

”Isssssss??”

“C’mon Nick, it starts with the letter O it’s also a color.”

“Grape is a color, right?”

”Mr. Richardson, I’m Dr. Drayer, Nick’s neurologist,” the salt and pepper gray haired man said as he offered a hand out. “Normally I would contact a parent but you seem to be the primary contact person listed for Nick.”

“For all intensive purposes I guess you’d say I am the primary contact person.”

“I’m going to get to the heart of the matter,” the doctor said as he opened up a thick file folder. “Nick was evaluated when he was first brought here and he was re-evaluated this afternoon. He has been diagnosed as having Anomic Aphasia.”

“I thought you said he had a slight stroke,” Kevin interrupted.

“He has and this is more of a fine tooled or specific diagnosis. What Anomic Aphasia is, is that Nick has word finding problems. For instance, if I showed him a knife and asked him what it was, he may say fork or spoon. He would know that it was a utensil you eat with but he would incorrectly identify that utensil.”

“He’ll get better—“

“We had hoped to see significant progress with his therapy given his age and the degree of the bleed however, Nick is actually failing and not improving.”

”Failing?”

“His speech is growing flat and sounds empty. The words are there but sometimes he has difficulty relating what he wants to say.”

Kevin swallowed hard as he listened to the doctor’s report. He felt his heart drop to his stomach. “Do you think we could help him? Someone other than people he doesn’t know? I mean i-is there something more we can do for him?”

”Perhaps having you go over the materials with speech therapy may help him. I couldn’t see at this point where it would hurt him. I’ll set up a time for you to meet with the director of speech. Is there a good time—“

“Just set the time, we’ll be there. We’ll do anything for Nick.”