Charlie asked me to take his autistic son Randal on his usual Saturday outing that includes a movie, the mall toy store, and dinner today. For some reason Sandra couldn’t do it and Charlie had a class reunion to attend. Charlie kept apologizing to me, but I assured him I didn’t mind. I was getting to see a movie and dinner for free but it did take six hours to complete everything.
Randal picked a movie called Hustle and Flow about a pimp who makes a demo tape and becomes a rap star. I went to the movie mainly just to keep an eye out on him as I didn’t have anything to do for two and half hours as I waited on him to come out from the theater. When I saw the MTV films logo an ominous feeling overcame me. The movie was not my cup of tea and it was an excruciating two and half hours but I endured. Luckily, the theater with this certain movie was almost devoid of patrons so things were quiet. It might have been because it was the afternoon matinee showing or that the target demographic just didn’t show up. When we departed our theater, the cinema was crawling with teenagers and college students all out for a Saturday night at the movies. They had waited for the night time showings to arrive en mass.
After the movie, I dropped him off at the mall. You have to drop him off at one end away from the toy store and he travels through the mall walking through almost every shop on the way. I just sat down on a chair near the toy store and waiting for Randal to make his appearance. After an hour, he did, and he bought one of those super soaker squirt guns.
“Horsefly, are you ready to go get something to eat?” I asked.
Randal hollered loudly that he was. There is no way to transcribe the way he talks. You can only understand him if you have been around him and known him for years.
I asked him if he wanted to go to the new chicken finger place or the old one. You have to be very specific as any deviation to his wishes can upset him and cause a temper tantrum that can get quite physical. He said he wanted to go to the new place in another town. I drove him there and we both sat and ate as he smiled and whispered to himself. He gets very excited around a large group of people and the restaurant was packed.
Afterwards, I drove the 45 minutes home and unlocked Charlie’s house and let him in. I made sure he had ample lights on in the house and that he got down to his little den where sits his television, lounge chair, toys, and shelves upon shelves of shaving cream.
“Well, horsefly, your dad and mom will be home in a few hours,” I said. “I am going to head on home.”
“We loves you!” He said loudly as he sat rocking in his chair and caressing his new squirt gun.
“I love you too,” I replied as I shut the door, locked up the house, and drove on home.
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