~THANKSGIVING~

Well, I said a week ago that I would probably be looking at one of those weeks... and sure enough, it's been one. At this point I'm sitting in the office staring at nothing, wondering if I should go find the redhead and have her hold my head but I know that she's busy feeding and lubricating the masses... ah, women... and I know that my moodiness would just infect her with that special kind of angst that defines me as selfish... so I'll just sit here and ruminate. Bla bla bla.

Half of our unit is either quit or out vacationing so the lovely Melanie and I have been holding down the fort all week, through Turkeyday... and now for the long weekend. And believe me it's been special. I guess it started with a shelter for a kid with asperger syndrome who had threatened his mom with a knife. "I'll kill you with this steak knife if you don't give me all the yu-gi-oh cards in the world! Gimmie gimmie gimmie." Even the cops were scratching their pointed little heads. Strange. Now understand, I work in a building full of social worker/teacher wannabes... all young women with minimal degrees... entry level jobs with nice new apartments full of rented furniture and shiney new Geos sitting out in the parking lot. Boyfriends who work construction and drive equally new pickups. (Oh, someday we'll prolly get married but in the meanwhile I'll stay on the pill and just raise Afghan puppies.) They're here doing "good"... whatever the hell that is.

Anyhow, the kid committed an aggravated assault on his mother because she didn't have the money with her to go out and buy him all the yu-gi-oh crap in the world...so he went nuts (for about the fortieth time in a month) and lunged at her with a kitchen knife. Being the country girl she was she went and got her boyfriend's Glock and offered to blow the kid's head off. But... Gee Mom! You promised! Boo hoo hoo. Here come the cops, the kid is arrested, the cops don't have a clue what they're dealing with, they call us, my boss... a circuit judge... decides that the kid can't go back into the home since the mom has a loaded handgun and has run completely out of patience and compassion. The trouble is, what do you do with an autistic thirteen year old who wants to kill for yu-gi-oh? Believe it or no, there are theraputic programs run by Devereaux for just such critters as my little guy. But the nearest unit they have is over in Viera (a suburb of Cocoa) which is close to where I keep my boat... about a hundred miles away. That's my only association with the Devereaux hospital. Well, about a hundred pounds of paperwork later (thank you Melanie thank you) I find myself stuffing this little guy into my Volvo with a grocery bag full of yu-gi-oh cards and we're off for the beach. Whee. Three straight days of babysitting a special needs kid (just short of having to diaper a thirteen year old... ick) and I was just about in the same place as the guntoting mama. But thank goodness for the good folks at Devereaux... my kid loves the place. It's full of wackey kids who are all Asperger kids (a very special type of autism, often very verbal but behaviorally off center... remember Rainman? That guy was one of those. Anyhow, the kid likes it, the bio-mom likes it, the judge likes it, and I guess I like it... but the week was full of little snippets of strangeness and voiceless sorrows:

I'm talking to a kid who says over and over that "She promised. She promised. She promised. I'll get a knife and stick it in her throat. Yeah, that's what I'll do." While he rocks back and forth, bugging himself and me too. Skinney little thirteen year old who can't tell you his name. Oooo...weeeee....ooohhh. A Public Defender from the same school as the schoolgirls that I have an office full of telling the court that the bio-mother should be in jail for threatening the kid with a handgun... Why your honor, it's scandalolus! Just horrid! I saw something on PBS last week about these kind of horrible parents. Just scandalous. Dr. Baird should do something about this RIGHT NOW! Well... gee. OK. Well, what can I do? Follow the wishes of the court... that's what. OK... Or? Or be found in contempt. I see. Thank you Your honor. Come on kid, you're gonna stay with me for a day or two until I can find somehwhere you can stay that's not a hotel with armed guards.

Like I said, it's been one of those kind of weeks. But... all's well that ends well. But just think, somewhere out there there's a mother with a Glock grieving for a son she thought she loved, a sad little broken baby with his wires crossed up playing with his damned yu-gi-oh cards, making up make believe universes in a world full of the monsters that live in his head. But hey... in my little part of the world I have a good looking grandson who will snatch a biscuit out of my hand and start gumming it with his three official teeth while growling and looking around for more. This is the same grandson who completed the circle with my lovely only-child daughter. So yes, I have much to be thankful for. At least I have a daughter who isn't having to live with the horror of an Asperger Syndrome kid who wants to stick a steak knife in her gizzard.

Bob