***
You need to be part of something larger than yourself, Gemini -- so if you need to find a spiritual community or a service organization, now is the time. You should expect to get some inspiration soon.
The days that followed after Cedric’s diner visit were a blur. I threw myself into my work and asked Bright Horizons if they could give me some more hours on the two afternoons I didn’t work with Lucas. I was on Wonder Woman duty Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I didn’t need to go home after the diner in the afternoon and sulk on the other days of the week. I needed to get my mind off the breakup of my imaginary boyfriend.
I was eventually told there was an opening working with an autistic woman named Calista two days a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This would fill my entire workweek and still leave the weekends free.
On the first Tuesday of December, snowflakes were flying and it was blistery as I headed out to my new assignment.
I knocked on the door of a small ranch style brick house in Boston’s Savin Hill neighborhood and the warmth of the heat inside immediately sucked me in. I was greeted by a friendly woman with graying black hair that was tied back into a bun. She looked to be in her mid to late sixties, and was quite beautiful. This must be her mother.
“Hello…you must be Allison?” She smiled.
“Yes, hi…it’s great to meet you,” I said nervously, not knowing what to expect from my new client. Wonder Woman boy, I had down pat, but I had no idea what was in store for me here.
“My daughter is in her room playing on her iPad. I am afraid that’s all she likes to do with her free time. But it keeps her occupied and out of trouble. Let’s have you meet her and then we’ll talk about the routine here.” She smiled. She seemed like a sweet lady.
I followed the woman down a hallway and smelled the delicious aroma of cinnamon, reminding me that I never had lunch. The house was warmer and more comforting than any I had ever been in.
The woman opened the door to her daughter’s bedroom.
Through the door I saw a beautiful young woman in her twenties with long brown hair tied into a side braid. She wore blue jeans, pink sneakers and a pink Hello Kitty hoodie. She sat on the bed looking down, transfixed by a musical video she was watching on You Tube. She hummed and rocked a bit, curling her fingers in excitement and did not seem to notice that we entered the room. I then got close enough to hear the song: The Wheels on the Bus.
I could see that there was an animation to go along with the song, various cartoon characters and a big yellow bus. She waved a long green Starbucks straw over the screen and looked like she was conducting an orchestra. She laughed when the video ended and pressed play again immediately. It was amazing to think that this was a woman in her twenties, because she seemed so childlike.
Her mother reached out and grabbed the iPad from her daughter, who was still laughing to herself, in an attempt to get the girl’s attention. When she finally looked up, the most beautiful blue eyes stared back at me…through me.
I knew those eyes.
“Callie, this is Allison…can you say hi?”
I froze. Calista…Callie: Cedric’s sister.
Bettina Callahan closed the door to Callie’s room, allowing her daughter to remain in her own world for a bit while she led me to the kitchen.
Oh my God!
I sat down and could feel my heart pounding rapidly, still reeling from the realization that I was in Cedric’s family home. It pained me so much to think about him and now I wouldn’t be able to escape it.
I felt almost as if I were an imposter, even though I had every right to be here. This was my job now and I wasn’t going to let Cedric or Karyn Keller or anyone screw it up. It wasn’t Callie’s fault I had a delusional crush on her brother.
“Allison…can I make you some tea while we go over Callie’s routine? I already have some water boiled.”
Again, this place was like heaven.
I did not get the impression that Bettina had any clue that I was the same person her son inquired about for the job information and figured Cedric never used my name.
“Yes, I’d love some,” I smiled. Tea sounded good and maybe it would calm my nerves. For some reason, I was not as freaked out as I might have figured I’d be in this situation. Cedric’s mother actually seemed like a really nice lady with a very reassuring tone.
As she prepared the tea, I looked around curiously. The kitchen, as did the rest of the house, seemed to have a cozy country feel, with lots of reds and greens with floral curtains and plaid seat pillows. It was homey but small, so I assumed it was just Callie and her mother who lived here.
“May I use your bathroom?” I decided I really had to go and figured since she was preparing the tea, this would be my window.
“Sure, dear, it’s back down the hall, last door on the left. Before you go, would you like black or green tea?”
“Green will be perfect. Thanks so much,” I said as I got up and walked down the hallway.
Before I opened the bathroom door, I noticed some family pictures on the living room wall diagonally across from the bathroom. I scurried over to the framed picture collage hoping she wouldn’t notice since I heard her clanking things back in the kitchen.
There he was.
If this wasn’t confirmation that I was in Cedric’s mother’s house, I don’t know what was.
The picture I focused in on appeared to be a photo of a younger Cedric on what looked like his high school graduation day. The same beautiful eyes were framed by even longer, shaggier hair. Cedric was flanked by his mother, father and whom I assumed was his brother. He had the biggest most beautiful smile and looked so happy. I immediately felt sad, remembering that during our car ride he mentioned that his father had passed away a few years earlier. Cedric was tall like his father and had his blue eyes. But his facial features and smile resembled his mother overall.
I didn’t want to take too much time staring at the picture, in case Bettina wondered what the hell I was so interested in her family for, so I entered the bathroom.
I splashed a small amount of water on my face to help calm me down from the surprise of this situation and quickly peed. I washed my hands and walked back out and down the hall.
Bettina had placed my tea in front of my seat in a beautiful ornate yellow ceramic mug and had her legs crossed sitting in the chair relaxed across from me and began to speak.
“Ok, Allison, so basically you met my daughter. You can see that she likes to be in her own world most of the time. What I hope when someone comes to work with Callie, is that they help to structure her time to make the most of it. I don’t want her just sitting there rocking back and forth, looking at online videos, like she does when she is alone. It’s really hard to break her out of her shell. I want you to try and play with her… try to get her to speak…I know it’s not easy getting her attention…the autism assures that. But you can read to her or try to get her to sound out the words, things like that. A group of her favorite books are in a large basket in her room. She can read many sight words but she just can’t always comprehend complex themes. So, she may not answer you if you ask what generally happened in the book, but might answer a simple question like ‘what are the characters doing in the picture?’
I nodded silently, as she continued.
“I’ll also have you sit with her and make sure she eats appropriately and puts away and washes her dishes. She also does some light chores likes recycling and swiffering the floors. She works at the library sorting books, accompanied by her other staffer on Mondays and Wednesdays, but you don’t need to worry about that since you are here Tuesdays and Thursdays. What questions do you have at this point?” Bettina looked at my quizzically.
I had so many questions.
“How much detail can she relay about what she wants?” I asked.
“A bit. Simple requests are her strength in terms of communication. She can say ‘I want’ and then list the item or even describe it somewhat. For example, ‘I want red sweater cat’ might mean I want the red sweater that has the black cat on it. Eye contact is a problem though. She doesn’t like to look at people.”
Bettina sipped her tea and then reached out for my hand, which startled me and continued. “You’ll get used to her, get a feel for what she likes. I can tell you will be great with her.”
Smiling, I said, “Thanks for the vote of confidence. What should I do with her for starters today?”
“Why don’t you just sit in her room with her for a while. Let her get used to your being there. Then, in about an hour, I can show you what her dinner routine is like.”
“Sounds good.”
I followed Bettina into Callie’s room and she quickly backed out and shut the door. I think she was intentionally separating herself so that I didn’t feel pressure from her watching me. I appreciated it because I was extremely intimidated by this situation, which left me feeling clueless.
I sat on the bed next to Callie, on a pretty Pottery Barn floral quilt. She continued to look at You Tube, but this time she was focused on a video that played television station identification music backwards. It looked to be vintage music from the cable station Nickelodeon. She would keep rewinding it to the same point in the middle playing the same three-second chime over and over again. I was fascinated that she actually found this entertaining and that she never once acknowledged that I was sitting next to her. She could have cared less that I was there, if she even realized it.
I decided to just sit next to her for a while and not say anything. Maybe she would eventually look at me or ask me for something. I looked around her room at the various pictures hanging on the wall, some butterflies, some drawings of stick people in crayon, some marker scribbled right on the wall.
There was one cluster of photos that particularly stunned me.
There on a bulletin board above her headboard was a collage of the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Yes, the Silver Fox. Apparently, Callie had the hots for him or something. It was such a strange contrast to the Dora the Explorer dolls and grade school board books that lay strewn on the floor. There were pictures of Anderson Cooper posing with other celebrities, headshots of him and an autographed picture.
I then decided to try something. I suddenly grabbed the iPad from Callie. She finally looked at me…like I was pointing a gun at her.
I quickly typed into the You Tube search bar: Anderson Cooper. Hundreds of search results displayed on the screen and I selected one that said Anderson Cooper Cracks Up During Newscast.
I pressed play.
Callie spotted Anderson right away and yanked the iPad from my hands.
Upon the first sight of Anderson losing control and laughing hysterically in the clip, Callie started jumping up and down on the bed frantically, with a look of utter excitement. She began to smile and then…a volcanic eruption of laughter came out of her.
I stopped the video, barely containing my own laughter at her response. And she looked at me.
“Callie, what do you want?” I asked holding the device.
“Anderson,” she said looking at the iPad.
“Ask better,” I said.
“I want Anderson,” she replied, her eyes still glued to the screen.
“Good!” I said and played the video again.
Each time the video played, Callie’s reaction was bigger than the last. And each time, I asked more of her before playing it again.
“Callie, what do you want?” I asked.
“I want Anderson,” she said.
I pointed to the still of the video. “Callie, this is Anderson Cooper. What do you want?” I asked.
“I want Anderson Cooper,” she said.
I played the video again and paused it mid-way. Callie, frantically curled her fingers and rocked back and forth, obviously wanting the video to continue. I had paused the image on Anderson’s smiling face.
“Callie, what is Anderson doing?” I asked.
“Smiling,” she said.
“Who is smiling?” I asked.
“Anderson Cooper is smiling,” she said with a grin.
“Good girl.” I resumed the video.
When the video stopped, Callie looked at the screen and said, “I want Anderson Cooper smiling.”
I held the iPad and wouldn’t budge.
“I want Anderson Cooper smiling!” Callie laughed staring away from me.
I held back and did nothing.
Then, what I had hoped for happened. She looked at me.
I immediately played the video to reward her for the eye contact to send her a message that looking at me would be a requirement for getting what she wanted. When the video stopped, she looked at me again immediately and said: “I want Anderson Cooper smiling.”
I played the video and stopped it mid-way, turning to her.
“Callie, my name is Allison. Ask me for the video.”
“Allison, I want Anderson Cooper smiling,” she said looking at the iPad.
I waited.
Waited some more.
She looked at me.
“Allison, I want Anderson Cooper smiling,” she said with eye contact.
I played the video. When the video ended this time, she looked at me without my having to say anything.
“Hi Callie,” I said.
“Hi Allison.” She smiled.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Callie.”
***
Almost three weeks into my new position working with Callie, she had become more and more aware of my presence. When I would enter the house, she would look at me unprompted and say, “Hi Allison.”
We developed a good routine each shift. At the start of each afternoon, we would play some of her favorite videos, but she would need to request everything with eye contact and answer any questions I asked her before I let her continue watching. Then, we’d move into the rest of the house and I would assist her with various chores, like sweeping the floor, folding laundry and taking out the recyclables.