Petey

“Sarah remembered their pastor’s words: as important as burying one’s dead, so it was necessary to let unfortunates like Petey slip from their lives and memories. Sarah reached out and traced her fingers gently across the odd curves of Petey’s bent little body. Then a sob broke through her composure, and Roy led her back to the car.”

Other characters frequently mention that Petey does not have a family. Like so many parents in the 20th century, Roy and Sarah were encouraged to surrender their child after his diagnoses. Complete separation was advised by experts, and Sarah’s grief reflects both her feelings of failure in her inability to find a way to care for Petey at home and her knowledge that she will never see her son again.

“Long shadows fell across Petey’s twisted little face as the sun settled that first day on Infants’ Ward. Immediately, a pattern of monotony captured his existence, a pattern marked by two phases: daybreak and sunset. The metronome of life enveloped Petey with this pattern. In the outside world, life diffuse the cadence, but in this place there was no life. […] Nobody could read his thoughts, nor could they see the feelings Petey was developing and wanted so desperately to express. All they could see were his fleeting, flickering smiles. Failing to respond any further, his expressions were still dismissed as the shallow gestures of an idiot.”

Perceived to be so profoundly intellectually disabled that he is unable to form coherent thoughts, the only services Petey receives on Infants’ Ward are for his physical care. He receives neither nurturing nor enrichment—none of the prolonged social interactions a child his age outside of an institution might benefit from. Even at his young age, Petey senses the detachment others feel toward him and yearns for meaningful connections.

“The following day, Esteban failed to show up for work. Each time the charge nurse walked by his crib, Petey grunted and swung his arms wildly. Pleading with his eyes he jerked his head up and down, back and forth. But without Esteban, every subtle gesture that had become Petey’s language, his way of touching the world, was once again seen as the movements of an idiot.”

Petey’s short relationship with Esteban afforded him a glimpse of what life might be like if caregivers were to take the time to interact with him patiently and inquisitively instead of dismissing him based on their perceptions of his abilities. Without understanding the circumstances surrounding Esteban’s firing, Petey can only wonder about why his friend is absent from his company. Esteban’s involuntary departure marks the beginning of the losses Petey will experience over the course of his life.