He proceeds by leading us through a series of questions and quests regarding the science of Walker’s condition, and the boy’s future. Will he change, improve? Can he be taught? Should he be institutionalized? No one would have blamed the Browns if they had placed Walker in an institution from the start. Mother and father put the question to themselves, and their answer is the same: “No, no, not now. Later.” The reason for the delay is love. Walker brings a strange, sweet love to his family, not because he exhibits love himself, but rather because he elicits their capacity for it. 他带我们进一步去思考一系列的问题,例如希望得到沃克病情方面的知识以及思考沃克的将来。他能改变,会有好转吗?他能不能受教育?他是否应该被送进收养所?即便布朗夫妇一开始就将孩子送进收养所,也不会有人责怪他们。做父母的会设身处地问自己,但答案都会相同:“不行、不行,现在还不行。等等吧。”这种犹豫不决是因为爱。沃克为这一家人带来了一种奇特的甜美的爱。并不是沃克能亲自表达爱,而是他激发了他们爱的能力。 Along the way, the parents despair, quarrel, blame themselves for Walker’s lack of progress, fall into dark silences. There are money worries. Walker’s formula alone costs $12,000 a year.Husband and wife have no privacy. They pay less attention to each other than toWalker. They learn to live with him as a sideshow attraction in public. The perceived normalities of other families insult and assault them. In hisinvestigations Brown discovers that had Walker been conceived today, a test administered at 10 weeks of pregnancy might have been available to detect abnormalities. Johanna says she would have had an abortion. Brown says, “But then you wouldn’t have had Walker.” Johanna counters that a fetus would not have been the Walker they know now. Brown speculates about what the world would be like without imperfect people like Walker. What we take from such exchanges is how lovely the couple are in their candor. One cannot help wondering if, in his formless, undemonstrative way, Walker created them.