Special Needs

Chapter 15: The Trip, Part 1

Theodore came to the suite a few days after I had last spoken to him. It was a shock to me when he addressed Harry rather than me. "Harry, would you like to go on a trip?"

Harry had been hiding behind me, cowering at Theodore's presence. Upon hearing the question, he stood up a little taller, unable to tame his curiosity, "Really?"

"Yes, really. You and Jules get packed. We leave tomorrow afternoon," he said.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"I have some business in Calgary. Then I thought we could do a bit of sightseeing and perhaps some shopping."

"That sounds wonderful. Doesn't it, Harry?" I asked, turning towards him. He nodded with a tender smile on his face. "How many days? Will we need swimsuits? What else should we bring?"

"Oh for heaven's sake," Theodore grumbled, but then he appeared to choke back his displeasure. He gave Harry a genuine smile and then spoke to me, "Pack for three nights, yes to a swimsuit, and I don't know...check the weather forecast."

"Okay, thank you," I said, giddy inside but wanting to let him see how truly excited I was.

It occurred to me that Harry may have never traveled so far before. "When is the last time you got to go anywhere outside the house?" I asked. Of course, he shrugged, not knowing. "What about when Theodore took you to the doctor a few weeks ago? When I was gone for the day?"

He looked at me like I was a little crazy. "I didn't go to the doctor."

I was furious, but I didn't want to show Harry that, and I didn't want to ruin the trip. It was less than ideal to travel with this obnoxious, deceiving man - who was suddenly acting kind of strange - but if it meant Harry could get out and just see a snippet of the great, wide world, it was worth it. But I'd be damn sure to ask about his latest lie.

"Do you remember ever leaving this house?" I wanted to know.

"A few times. I remember going to buy food with one of my nannies," he said. "I went to a really big park. And Mary taked-"

"Took," I corrected him.

"-took me to a lot of places but then she left. I loved her."

I swallowed a lump of compassion to learn that he actually did have a meaningful connection to another person besides me. "Who was Mary?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I loved her but she cried a lot. Then she left." He looked like he wasn't finished speaking, then he continued, "Was she my mom?"

Tears pricked my own eyes at his lack of understanding about his own life. "I...I don't know, Harry. I don't know who your mom was." But I was determined to find out not only who she was but why she left. Steering the subject back to what we had been talking about previously, I asked, "Have you ever been to a zoo?"

"Nope," he answered.

I pulled up my phone and searched for a zoo in Calgary; it was a large city, so I assumed there would be one there. Sure enough, the first hit was Calgary Zoo, complete with a picture of a giraffe. I showed Harry. "We should ask Theodore if we can go to the zoo."

"Yes!" He practically squealed in excitement, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Oh, and there's a tower where you can go up and see all of the city," I told him.

"Like my treehouse tower?" He asked.

"Much, much taller. You can see a whole city of a million people from up there."

His eyes widened. "Can we meet all the people?"

I chuckled. "No, most people in the world only meet around 10,000 people in their entire lifetime, but I think it's impossible to meet a million people."

He actually looked disappointed. Then he said, "I don't know 10,000 people," and looked even sadder.

"Well that's an average number that someone will meet in their whole lifetime. That includes a doctor you might have seen when you were five, or someone you meet at school but don't know very well. I bet you'll have many opportunities to meet people as you get older," I assured him and I hoped that I was right.

"Jules?" He said uncertainly.

"Yes?"

"I don...don't know how to pack."

With some searching, I found a small suitcase and a backpack in Harry's closet and I helped him to pack his clothes and some toiletries for the trip. Then I packed my things and we were ready to go. We spent the rest of the day talking about what we might see and do.

"How do you feel about going somewhere with Theodore?" I asked.

He bit his lip slightly. "I...I don't know. He...he doesn't like me."

"I'm sure that's not true," I said, wondering how to downplay the way he had treated Harry in the past. "He's a very busy man. Sometimes parents don't realize how much their kids need to be loved and cared for. I think that Theodore is probably really good at his job, and I'm sure he loves you, but he doesn't know how to show it most of the time."

"That's a thing?" He asked. I shook my head, not understanding his question. "How... how... how...." He started getting frustrated with his stuttering. I rubbed his shoulder, helping him to calm down. "How can you love...love someone and not know how to show it?"

This boy was so intuitive. Nothing I had seen yet pointed to intellectual disability. Even his apparent simple-mindedness appeared to be lack of learning opportunity versus an actual deficit. I was equally miffed and curious, wanting to know how he had come to be diagnosed with it in the first place. A medical report would be so helpful, but I pretty much knew that Theodore wouldn't just hand one over to me. Of course, I could do some snooping if I knew anything about his schedule and when he was likely to not be in his home office, since I knew where the keys were for at least some of the file cabinets.

"It is a thing, sadly," I told Harry. "People can have strong feelings but they don't know how to express them. And sometimes people just make bad choices that somehow contradict the good things they want to do."

"I still don't get it," Harry sighed.

I was so glad he didn't. His heart was pure gold and the only hesitation I had about guiding him into adulthood was that he would inevitably be faced with the the cold reality of life outside these four walls. Yes, he had experienced some of it within its confines, but he would likely learn much more about the unfairness of it all - wars, hunger, poverty, selfishness, murder and theft. I just hoped and prayed that he would always keep his heart golden and not let it be tainted by the world outside.

* * * * *

Up to 147K reads this second time around. I'm so happy! Keep 'em coming and thank you SO Much! <3