BABY X
A Different kind of Child
By Jerrel Patrick
He's not like anyone you have
ever met. Like nobody anyone has ever met. The first sign that something was
amiss came with the first ultrasound. He was grinning! His mischievous grin, I
now know. The same one I have seen dozens of times, right before he does
something little kids just do not do, and I go into panic mode, once again.
Just biding his time. Just waiting to pop out and shock the world.
The day of his birth rolled around. A
C-Section. As soon as he was pulled out, he raised his head and looked around
at the doctor and nurses, individually, as if in greeting. They were
dumbfounded.
I watched him on my living room floor,
when he was entering that stage were babies lie on their stomach and wiggle
around. He put his hands on the floor and tried to push up, again and again.
Finally, he raised his upper
body off the floor, held, his arms started to quiver, then he collapsed.
Nothing abnormal here. But he did it again, held a little longer, arms shook
more, tears started to flow. Collapse. Up again – tears – a little longer –
Collapse. This was repeated, again, again, and again. Tears, hard sweat now.
Finally, total exhaustion. Temporarily delayed, never defeated. A healthy
respect started to grow within me. How could his tiny body contain so much
determination?
Winter came. It was cold in that house.
His family lives like Eskimos. He was put into a sleeper, zipped up. The next
morning, he was naked in his crib. Though he was far too small to leave that
crib, little signs of mystery began to show up here and there. He had wandered
at will about that house, naked.
I put a couple of rounds of duct tape
around his chest, to keep that sleeper on. No luck. Next, a safety pin was
fastened to the inside of the zipper, near the top. The next morning he was
naked in his crib, punching holes in the mattress with the open safety pin.
I went shopping. In the fishing
department, I found a giant snap swivel, so strong I could barely open it. I
substituted it for the safety pin the next night. The next morning, the sleeper
was still on, but he must have found a tiny hole in the toe, worked it, worked
it, and worked it until one whole leg was out, which he proudly displayed.
His father, worn out by this struggle, was
beginning to fathom the depth of his determination. He just asked, “Which
sleeper do YOU want to wear?”
He
pointed one out. “That one.” End of the great sleeper struggle.
For a time, his parents kept him in his
crib with an elaborate, tent like structure over the top. Then, they just had
to give up. He wandered the house at will at night, still too small to get out
of that crib, supposedly.
They had chocolate cake for supper, just
as he was beginning to talk. He loved it. He asked for seconds.
“No,
save it for tomorrow”
Our
subject calmly stated, “Mom, while you are asleep, I will come in and get a
second piece.” Well, he was less than two years old now, small for his age. But
mom placed it on top of the fridge, just in case. The next morning, the cake
was on the kitchen floor, intact, except for a piece missing, and a chocolate
trail leading to his crib. After the scolding, they just had to ask; “How did
you do that?”
He
brought out a two step ladder with a circle bar on top for a handle. “I stood
on top,” he explained, pointing to the handle.
They were on vacation in a condo. He slept
on the folded up hide-a-bed. When morning came, he was just gone. Could not be
found. After a time, he crawled out of the bowels of the folded up hide-a-bed.
He always liked tight places, loved the challenge of going where it seemed
impossible for him to go.
I took him for a walk in an athletic
field. I always try to keep him in large, open spaces, out of trouble. We came
to metal bleachers by the tennis court. He started climbing half way up, going
to the end, jumping off, rolling out of it. He never hurts himself when he
falls. I was distracted for a moment, a very bad thing. When I looked around,
he was at the top level, about to jump. My scream caused him to slip, and he
fell down through the framework. He hit a bar that cartwheeled him. Hit another
bar, another cartwheel. Finally, he hit the ground with a splat. I ran to him.
The breath was knocked out of him. When he recovered from it somewhat, he said,
“I need to sit down for a minute.” No tears. We have an understanding in our
family. If a hurt brings tears, call 911. At the end of that minute, almost
exactly, that grin started to spread across his face as he jumped up. “I'm
going to do that again!”
“No,
you're not,” I said. “We're going home.”
My wife's family reunion rolled around.
Later, we all visited the old farm home site. It was surrounded by hundreds of
acres of plowed ground. The kids all romped and played. This one child,
different than the rest, now two, started walking away. Farther and farther he
went. Finally, a concerned adult asked, “When will he turn around?”
“He won't,” I replied. “I will have to go
get him eventually.”
To make my point, I just watched. I decided
I would just let him go, as long as he was in no danger. He became a speck in
the distance. Finally, I started moving fast to catch up, before he had time to
get to a road. He and I walked back, as the families watched. He tripped,
falling face first in the dirt. A collective “oooooooooh!” arose from the
onlookers. I paid no attention. He arose, wiped the dirt off his face, so he
could see, and quickly caught up. He never hurts himself with his falls.
He was approaching three now, watching his
brother's basketball practice. The coach was a hard case, ran his team with an
iron hand. His teams almost never lost. Parents were afraid of him. When
practice was over, our subject walked onto the court, shook the coach's pants
leg, and said something.
The
coach could not hear. The coach got down on a knee, face to face, and said,
“What did you say, buddy?”
“I
said, that was not nice of you, telling my brother to get his butt back on the
court!” Everyone fell silent. The coach
raised up, red faced. One or two of the coache's buddies laughed quietly
momentarily, but they were quickly silenced by a red-faced glare.
At
the next practice, the coach stated to a group of parents, “Well, I've never
been dressed down like that by anyone that small! Then he laughed.
Then, everybody laughed.
**************
CONTINUED NEXT MONDAY. Thanks for reading!
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