An Experience with Autism

I wrote earlier that I and The Brave went to a restaurant. This post is partially about my experience with his son who is Autistic, a 20 something boy. The Chef actually had told me about his experiences with the boy and I knew it was bad but what could I do? He wanted to go there and I had to go because I had owed him a meal.

So we're there eating and talking and the boy's sitting next to me, playing with his food. I mean he plays with food instead of eating it! He does everything but putting it in his mouth! The Brave is still patient and just gives him warnings off and on. The boy only communicates with words. He is not able to make a complete sentence and spells it out. However he understands almost everything and lack of being able to communicate, does not affect his life much. Other functions, most importantly, not being able to think rationally has made life for him difficult. We are half way through our meal and he requests another Soda by calling it. His Dad tells him that he cannot have it, basically because it has too much sugar, he says but he doesn't accept and insists! I don't blame him. People who have functioning brain drink that disgusting liquid every day! What should I expect from a boy who is not even able to speak properly?! At this point he becomes agitated, stands up and calls his favorite Soda flavour by pointing at one of the passing waiters! His Dad becomes a little more concerned and asks him to sit down, while explaining to the waiter that the boy suffers from a condition, being Autistic! How stupid! How does a poor waiter from villages of a non-developed country, who has been lucky and somehow ended up in Canada, know about a mental condition that the majority of people have little or no information about?! The guy looks at The Brave and then the boy, smiles and then walks away. The Brave then warns him that if he does not finish his meal and continues making a scene, he would drag him out of the restaurant and they would never come back. The warning does not seem to be working as the boy does something similar and this time it pisses The Brave off really badly and he tries to kick him from under the dining table! The kick is really good and I believe he tried his best to reach the boy but the boy is smart(!) or experienced enough to jump back to avoid the kick while making a noise! We almost have finished our meal and ready to leave while, I guess, he still has some on his plate. That doesn't look like food any more! We both go to the counter to pay and the boy, I can see from the corner of my eye, is going to another table where people are still eating there! The Chef had told me that he does that at times and I wonder why The Brave let him be by himself! Eventually someone from another table came and complained to us! The Brave at this point grabbed the boy's arm and we left under the keen eyes of the diners! The Brave's face, while we were walking out of the restaurant, looked quite disturbed. He looked very annoyed and at the same time upset, quite similar to a kid that you tell him that he cannot have ice cream for his dessert for the entire week! I had seen that faced years ago when I used to be his tenant. At the time he was in such shit situation and was not able to handle himself very well. His wife had just lefty him and they were fighting over the custody of the children and he was out of work (like most of his life that he has been!) If you know the boy is sick, he would most likely make a scene in public place and he is unable to fully follow your commands, why would you bring him out in the first place or if you do, expect everything unpleasant and deal with it! I feel bad for my friend but that's life. You have to deal with it on daily basis. I now it's hard and I know I would not have had the patience to deal with such issue, if that ever had happened to me but I had to gain that. Poor boy. 

(Photo: I certainly didn't want to use any Autistic boy's picture here as that would have caused problems. Instead I decided to use this simple graph which indicated that Autism has become a bigger problem in today's world. In addition to The Brave's son, Kevin's daughter, he told me, is Autistic as well. Mom told me that one of the cousins has an Autistic boy. Also a family friend who lives in Ontario, according to Mom, also has an Autistic child. It has become an epidemic, I hope not though)