Kedem Har-Shalom
What if there were a prequel to Rain Man? It may look something like this:
It’ s 1962. 18 year old “idiot savant” Raymond Babbitt lives in a comfortable suburban middle class community in Cincinnati with his father and pregnant mother. In the opening scene, they all drive to the mental institution of Walbrook to meet with the doctors. They ride in the same 1949 Buick convertible from the original movie, except that now the seats are green (which Raymond explained in the original movie that he liked better) and the father lets him drive the car slowly around the hospital property.
A couple of the doctors already know Raymond. He apparently has been coming there since he was a child. He is officially diagnosed as an idiot savant, but one of the doctors now talks about a new diagnosis called autism and that it appears Raymond is exhibiting more signs of that condition than of intellectual disability that would merit the “idiot” part. Then that doctor introduces Raymond to two new nurses and asks him what is the square root of 3000, to which Ramond replies “54.77…” The doctor shows the nurses his math tables book with the section for square roots and the nurses are very impressed. Raymond then asks them “Do you take any sleeping pills?” and they get uncomfortable. The first doctor explains that that just means Raymond likes them.
Raymond’s mother explains that they like having him at home and feel he thrives over there better than in an institution but the parents do not know if they can handle it anymore. They are about to have a second child and are getting old. The doctor says that all this is very understandable and starts convincing the doctors that he will be taken very good care of at Walbrook.
They walk around the facility. The exteriors and the main parts look very inviting (think of the original Rain Man) but when they go to the corridor where he is going to live, Raymond notices the people who are talking to themselves and is bothered by the noises made by the groaning people. Furthermore, he does not like the tiny rooms, which he finds out he will need to share with another person. Upon hearing this, he pleads with his parents not to make him move there. Ultimately they decide to take him back home.
In his neighborhood, Raymond occasionally likes to take walks. He likes to pay attention to a house that is being remodeled and the various changes that are being done from day to day. He also likes paying attention to the moving automobiles and the kids riding their bikes. One day he spots a twelve year old girl doing hula hoops at her front yard and stares at the motion of the hoop. Even though he is not staring at the girl with sexual intention, the girl’s mother does not care and she comes knocking at the Babbitts’ door and demands that Raymond be placed in an institution. Raymond’s mother then explains to him that he can stare at moving objects as much as he wants, but just not when they are on other people, especially not girls.
Soon Raymond’s younger brother Charlie is born. Raymond likes him from the start, playing with his fingers and watching them curl. He is, however, bothered by the noises Charlie makes, first the crying and later the gurgling. Raymond regularly goes into his room and listens to his radio or his records and to all the music that was popular in the early 60s. Sometimes when he goes on walks Raymond quotes the lyrics from these songs and sometimes even goes into singing them.
Raymond also watches a lot of TV with his parents. He is intrigued by the “See the USA in your Chevrolet” commercial, regularly singing that theme, and asks his parents why don’t they take him on such a trip. They tell him that they cannot take him there with all his special needs, and that they cannot stop somewhere just so he can go to bed when he wants to or watch his favorite TV shows. Raymond is quite upset at being denied this, adding to the explanation of why he would insist Charlie drive him across the country 25 years later. Another show Raymond likes is Jeopardy. His parents introduce him to it the day the original version debuts in 1964 and is hooked to it ever since. His other must watch shows are American Bandstand and Perry Mason.
The mother soon starts developing medical problems. She is diagnosed with lung cancer and given less than a year to live. As she regularly has to go to the hospital, Charlie starts developing anxiety. Raymond is bothered by the additional noises his two year old brother now makes, particularly when his mother is not around, he finds that he can calm him down by singing him his favorite Beatles and Motown songs. Charlie comes to like his brother and calls him “Rain Man”.
On January 2nd 1965 the mother dies and the father realizes he cannot raise two boys on his own. As much as he loves Raymond, he takes him to live at Walbrook. Raymond is given his own room and his bed is placed by the window as he likes it. Raymond does have some problems getting by with the other patients. For example, one of them does not like Raymond’s insistence on watching Jeopardy. When the warden asks the other person if there is any other show he would like to watch and he gives no answer but Raymond says he wants to watch Jeopardy, the warden rules in Raymond’s favor.
Raymond’s father frequently comes to visit him. Sometimes he brings Charlie along and lets him play on the hospital grounds but never actually brings him to his brother. Eventually the father stops bringing Charlie altogether. The father also sometimes brings Raymond home to spend the weekend but only when Charlie is away. Eventually Raymond catches on to this and asks him why does he not bring his brother to visit and the father says that Charlie is busy. As Raymond keeps bringing it up, especially once Charlie gets older and past the noisy little kid stage, the father tells him that the hospital is not a place for children and that Charlie does not need to know his brother is institutionalized. However, the father assures him that Charlie does know about him and keeps talking about “Rain Man”.
In reality, the father neglects Charlie. He regularly leaves him home alone when he is around eight years old and goes off to visit his other son. When Charlie complains about this, his father reminds him that he is an only child and could not love him any more. The father expresses much more love to Raymond, whom he sometimes takes out at night into town while Charlie is left alone in bed calling out to his imaginary friend “Rain Man” whom he pictures as a handsome young guy who comes singing to him pop songs and not realizing that is his brother. Flash forward to 1988 and a landmark scene from “Rain Man”. A now adult Charlie arrives at the institution and meets Raymond not knowing who this guy who seems to know his family’s story in detail is. When he asks the doctor and is informed that it is his brother, Charlie says “I don’t have a brother”.