Quotes Mackenzie

Wednesday

Bobby walks into his 1st period speech class.

"Good morning, Bobby." His speech teacher, Mrs. Ganton, says smiling. "How are you doing today?"

"I'm do...doing g-good." Bobby answers. "How...are y...you?"

"I'm doing fine." Mrs. Ganton answers. "Thank you for asking."

Bobby sits across from Mrs. Ganton at her desk.

"Your other teachers have told me that your random outbursts didn't happen as often yesterday." Mrs. Ganton says.

"I'm...try...trying t-to...contr...trol it." Bobby says.

"I was told that you couldn't control it." Mrs. Ganton says, raising an eyebrow.

"Hon-honest...ly, I ne...never t-tried to." Bobby admits. "I ju...just...let the...quotes out."

"How come you never tried to control it?" Mrs. Ganton asks.

"I ju...just...I l-love say...saying th-them." Bobby says.

"But some of those quotes have bad words in them. You know you shouldn't say them, so why let those out?" Mrs. Ganton asks.

Knowing his answer will be lengthy, Bobby reaches into his backpack for a pencil and piece of paper.

"No, no, Bobby. No writing. That's no way to practice." Mrs. Ganton says. "SAY everything you want to say. We have plenty of time."

Bobby exhales.

"Ag...again, I...I ne-never kn...knew I c...could con-control it. I tr-tried to f...for the f-first t...time yes...terday. And I...on-only t-tried bec...cause of wh-what hap...happened Mon-Monday." He says.

"Yeah, I heard about that incident." Mrs. Ganton says. "So, if you can control it, then I guess this means you don't really have Tourette's."

"No, I d...do. W...when I s-say "I c...can contr-trol it", I...m-mean, l-like how l...loud I...say it." Bobby says.

"So you can't stop yourself from saying the quotes, but you can whisper them so no one will hear you?" Mrs. Ganton asks.

"Y-yes." Bobby answers. "I...only f-found th...that out y...yester...day th-though."

"I see." Mrs. Ganton says. "Now...on to today's lesson. Let's try some more of those basic sentences today. I'll let you know when you're ready to move on to the harder ones."

Bobby nods his head as Mrs. Ganton pulls out some index cards with short sentences written on them. She shows him one that says,

"The child's toy is blue."

"Read this one." Mrs. Ganton instructs.

"The ch...child's t-toy is b...blue." Bobby says.

"Okay." Mrs. Ganton says. "Try that one again, but this time, look at all the words and say them all in your head before saying them out loud. REALLY think about them, and then say them."

As if he were a young Sherlock Holmes, Bobby thoroughly examines the sentence.

"Houston, we have a problem." Bobby whispers.

"What was that?" Mrs. Ganton asks.

"N-nothing." Bobby says.

He continues to examine the sentence.

"The...child's...t-toy is-"

"Try again." Mrs. Ganton interrupts Bobby. "Take your time. Sound it all out in your head, then say it."