Flashback...

Ben watched Alice building sandcastles with a mix of fascination and affection. His designs were all built out of the same half-dozen molds available, but no two of hers were alike; he wondered at the fact that this subordinate, will-less girl could possess such imagination and intelligence. She looked up and smiled at him, glad to be fulfilling his desire to see her exercise her gifts.

He was so enraptured by his companion that he didn't notice the other boys approach until one of them spoke.

"Hi, Ben. Are you having fun playing with your doll?" asked Jeremiah. Ben whirled to face him, his adoring look turning to a scowl.

"She's not a doll!" Ben cried. "She's smarter than you!"

Jeremiah and the five or six boys around him laughed. "Maybe you're right. Hey Alice, can you do my homework for me?"

"And clean my room!" one of the other boys said, beginning a cascade of demands for her to do various chores and unpleasant tasks. Alice nodded eagerly, absorbing each boy's demand as her own the moment she heard it. Ben stood and angrily approached them.

"You leave her alone!" he said. "She's not your ****! She's my friend!"

"I ought to beat you up for that," Jeremiah said with a wicked grin. "But I don't need to. Hey, Alice! I want you to kick Ben in the nuts and spit in his face."

Ben whirled around in panic, half a second too late to avoid a dirty red sneaker landing directly between his legs. He collapsed, barely aware of the cacophony of laughter as he felt a warm glob of spittle hit his cheek. As the boys walked away, Alice sat next to him and rubbed his back sympathetically.

"I'm so sorry I did that," she said. He sat up weakly, tears in his eyes.

"It's not your fault. Please don't feel bad."

She smiled at him, her eyes kind, gentle, and free of guilt. As she leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek, Ben knew that she truly didn't feel bad. The swirl of emotions that accompanied that was far too complex and dissonant for his young mind to process, so he just cried and let himself be comforted.

"You did great," Alice said chipperly to Meg. "That was perfect."

"What the fuck was that?" Ben asked. "Did you tell her to say all that stuff?"

Alice moved to him and rubbed his back. In spite of everything, it always soothed him when she did that. "Not exactly," she said. "We've been practicing her using her self-determination. I was telling Meg all about you and all the wonderful things you've done for me when I had an idea. I told her to try to think of the worst way to interpret what she knows about you."

"Why?" Ben asked. His breathing was slowly returning to normal.

"Because I knew you really wanted this first meeting to go well. I haven't seen you this excited in years! Meg knew that, so to cut you down like that was an incredible display of automotivation. I thought you'd be happy to meet a woman who could finally do that to you."

"Any woman can say mean things to me," Ben said sullenly. "You've said horrible, horrible things to me in the past."

"But I never meant them," Alice said. "I could only say them because somebody who didn't like you wanted me to. That's the problem, right? I love you, but it will never be enough because you can't earn it. You want to earn someone's affection? Here's your chance."

"But you set her up to hate me!" Ben objected. "You made her-"

Meg cut in suddenly. "Nobody can 'make me' do anything, Ben. I don't hate you, but I'm starting to get annoyed with you. Alice has worked her whole life to give you what you want, and now that you have it you're complaining."

Alice nodded. "See? Meg has insights that I never can, because you can't want me to have them. You're a sweet, sensitive guy and I'm the love of your life. We both know that you'll never stop craving my love. Meg, on the other hand, is a stranger who's completely free to make up her own mind about you."

Ben looked thoughtfully at Meg. "You... I need to convince you to like me. I need to win you over."

Meg nodded and turned to Alice. "You're a lot smarter than him, aren't you?"