Tag: Autism

The song changed, reminding him to move forward. He pressed open the doors and entered the lobby. “Talk to the receptionist. Show her the screen. She will need to touch it.”

James shuddered at the last instruction. The tablet was a part of him. Touching it was like touching him.

He approached the desk in the lobby. “Hello, Mrs. Banko.” The man sitting behind the desk in a uniform looked up in surprise.

A man was where Mrs. Banko should be. Not knowing what else to do, James offered the man his tablet. The man couldn’t pull it very far, since James hadn’t taken out his earbuds, and he raised his eyebrows before looking down at the screen. Seeing the long list of instructions, each highlighted in turn, the security officer quickly read through them.

“Ah, you want Pickin and Strummin. They are on the fourth floor. The elevators are to your right.”

James froze. That hadn’t been in the instructions. “I…I…” He started rocking.

“You a musician, kid?”

A question. He is suppose to answer questions of people in uniform. “Yes.”

“What do you play?” The security guard handed back the tablet, which James grabbed and pressed into his chest.

“Guitar, and violin, and saxophone, and piano.” He could play many more instruments than that, but Mr. Hammer had told him to give that answer for the interview. James like the dulcimer a lot, but Mr. Hammer said there wasn’t much call for that as a background musician.

“Maybe we can jam sometime. They let me up there after my shift if no one has rented time. You do jazz?”

“Yes. I play everything, but jazz is nice.” James bit his lip. “I like ragtime on the piano and smooth for the sax.”

“Haven’t done much with ragtime myself, but it would be fun to try with my bone. They got an upright.” The guard moved over to the phone. “I’ll ring them and let them know you are coming up.”

“Okay.” James took a long inhale and exhale, studying the lobby, finally seeing the sign pointing to the elevators. He looked at his screen for instructions, but they weren’t there. “Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.”

The eighteen-year-old followed the arrows to a place with four sets of doors and buttons aiming up only. He pressed the button and one of the sets of doors immediately opened. James walked into the small room, turned around in three small steps until he faced the closing doors and waited. Nothing happened.

What was he suppose to do next?

 

A to Z Short Story List Breakdown

Rainbow Spectrum (A to F)

4/1/2019 – A is for Adapt
4/2/2019 – B is for Bus
4/3/2019 – C is for Courage
4/4/2019 – D is for Duke
4/5/2019 – E is for Eclectic
4/6/2019 – F is for Finish

“What are you going to be doing at Franklin, James?” The bus driver asked as he pulled away from the stop and continued down the busy city street.

“I’m going to a job interview.” James about burst when he said those words. He hadn’t told his parents; the music teacher at the school had arranged it. “I might not get the job. Mr. Hammer told me that. Me getting the job will be all me or not me. And he said it okay for me not to get the job because only one in forty people get the job for stuff like this even with an interview, but someone has to get the job so I should try the interview. I got to play my best. If I am good enough, they will make me a session musician. I can do music and not have to play for crowds and I can maybe have a real job instead of being permanently and totally disabled and being a useless drain on society who would have been better off being left in the woods for wolves to eat.”

The bus driver gripped the steering wheel tighter, while the woman who had moved to the seat behind James’ normal seat winced. Mr. Krick cleared his throat, glancing up at the interior mirror and seeing James staring at his tablet again and nodding in time with the music running to his earbuds. “Good luck on the interview, James.”

James didn’t respond, not sure how to act. He thought he may have said too many words. Mom always told him not to talk too much, unless she was trying to get him to talk. He never was sure which he should do, talk or not talk. Listening to music and watching the screen, he rocked his body to the beat and waited for the alarm to let him know when it was time to change buses.

People got on and off. Some looked at him like he was diseased and shouldn’t be out in public while others familiar with him having been on the route for a while smiled at him. A few ignored the front seat passenger in the anonymity of the flood of humanity in the city.

***

Standing in front of 439 West Franklin Avenue, James breathed his mantra “Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.” He had made it nearly forty-five minutes through the transportation system, to arrive the required fifteen minutes early the music teacher had said was needed when going to a job interview. All on his own. He touched the message center on his tablet and sent the premade text to Mr. Hammer letting him know he had arrived at the recording studio.

“Go through the doors.” was written on the screen as the next step. Mr. Hammer and James’ in-school counselor had sweated over the instructions with James, making sure they didn’t miss anything. From the time he had woke up this morning until now, every step had been written. Showering, dressing, eating breakfast. Mr. Hammer and Miss Grace understood this was James’ real graduation ceremony. If he could do this, he may be able to convince his parents he could live in a group home instead of depending on them for the rest of his life.

Also his sisters, Barbara and Dorthy, needed to know they didn’t need to worry about him. They had their own kids to take care of. James had been a late in life surprise to his parents, with his two sisters already in high school when he came along and changed everything. They didn’t need to be his caretakers even if they were willing to help.

 

A to Z Short Story List Breakdown

Rainbow Spectrum (A to F)

4/1/2019 – A is for Adapt
4/2/2019 – B is for Bus
4/3/2019 – C is for Courage
4/4/2019 – D is for Duke
4/5/2019 – E is for Eclectic
4/6/2019 – F is for Finish

Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.

His life mantra. Every move he made. Every time he left the house. Every interaction. The spectrum challenged every task he did with people, but he refused to hide behind his parent’s helicopter ways.

He turned eighteen in January and graduated high school in June. For real graduated, not just a paper pass, James made sure of that. His unique method of looking at the world, hearing it, seeing it, gave him certain masteries – an easy out with math, while denying him the ability to function in crowds or interact with people. But he could work around his problems – it took a lot of effort, more than he could put together all the time, but he could put it together something enough of the time that mountains could be climbed.

Staring at his tablet, James adjusted the strap of the case he slung across his back and followed preprogrammed instructions to the bus stop. Once arriving, he stayed focus on the tablet, waiting for the bus, listening to the calming music he chose for today’s overcome-ing through earbuds. He didn’t lift his eyes when the bus hissed to a stop, nodding when the wifi verified the correct bus had arrived.

The first step off the sidewalk and into an enclosed space with strangers nearly undid him, until the city bus driver who had taken him to school broke through the haze, “Hey, James. Good to see you man.”

The same words said every day for the last two years recentered him and pulled back the crash. “Thank you Mr. Krick, it’s good to see you too.” The three steps up the stairs flowed naturally.

“Where is your mom?”

A new question. “Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.” James said out loud before sitting behind the driver, a regular passenger moving from the seat without James noticing, except he noticed. He wished he knew how to thank the lady. “My mom is at work.”

The bus driver closed the doors. “Good for her.” As Mr. Krick pulled away from the curb, checking all his mirror, he asked another question which took James a moment to processed. He had to look at his tablet before he reheard the words. All the cars moving in the city traffic had distracted him.

“Where are you going?”

James studied the screen. The words he needed were there. “439 West Franklin Avenue,” he read off the screen.

“That isn’t on my route, James.” The driver pulled to the curb, opening the door and nodding as people got on and off.

“Connection. I am to take the connection at Luther Blvd to the blue line. It says here.” Franklin leaned forward even more, since he couldn’t lean back with the case, and showed Mr. Krick the tablet.

The bus driver very carefully looked at the screen, without touching it or looking James in the eye. “Oh, you got our new app. Yeah, the blue line will take you to Franklin. Thank you for showing me.”

More routine words. James was grateful Mr. Krick was working. He knew when he heard those words, he should take the tablet back. No need to guess when things needed to change. Mr. Krick was one of his favorite people.

 

A to Z Short Story List Breakdown

Rainbow Spectrum (A to F)

4/1/2019 – A is for Adapt
4/2/2019 – B is for Bus
4/3/2019 – C is for Courage
4/4/2019 – D is for Duke
4/5/2019 – E is for Eclectic
4/6/2019 – F is for Finish