Just us- SBI adoption story (Just me and him book 2)

Chapter 84: my crutch

TW- swearing, ableism, shouting, arguing, fighting

Kristin's POV:

"Tommy are you listening?" He turned around, his eyes fixed on me for a second before following my pointed finger to the instructor, a nice guy who had been very understanding.

"Tell you what, why don't I get Techno set up and going with a colleague?" He suggested.

Phil took the opportunity to take Tommy off to a slightly different part of the climbing centre, just out of the way, for a break. I stayed behind and cheered on Techno as he started climbing the wall, feet finding the holds and looking up at where he was going.

After a couple minutes, Tommy and Phil came back over and the went over the instructions again with Tommy. Phil reiterated the important stuff. "Mate, you do not touch this okay, no touching at all. If you touch that is dangerous, do you remember what we said about dangerous things."

"Science." Tommy signed.

"Uh yea, yep just like there is some dangerous things in your science lessons at school so we have to be careful otherwise someone might get." Tommy acted out something hurting which wasn't quite a sign but got his point across. "Yep someone might get hurt. So no touching that and you listen to Micky when he tells you things okay?" Tommy nodded and jumped up and down, excited to start.

I hoped Wilbur and his friends were doing okay but ultimately it was ice skating and they'd done it before. Plus with our son freshly 16, it was about time we gave him so more independence. Instructor Micky got Tommy all hooked up and supported him to begin climbing. Unsurprisingly, Tommy was up the wall like a rocket, giggling nearly the whole time and sticking his tongue out in concentration at some of the difficult parts. Despite starting 5 or so minutes before, Tommy beat Techno to the top and had no fear abseiling back down the wall as Jonny caught the slack on the belay.

They tried another wall next, Jonny picking a more difficult one and explaining to Tommy how it might be best for him to try to do something. "And no worries if you fall off because I'll catch you, okay, so just have fun."

Once again, Tommy climbed quickly. Not as quickly as the first wall because of the difficulty but up he went with seemingly no problem. And he was loving it. Not one part of it seemed to scare him and it was so lovely to see him so happy.

Techno moved onto another wall of similar difficulty to his first one. He was enjoying himself too and enjoying it more when he was able to be at the same height as Tommy on his wall and call out to Tommy, waving to each other. That only made Tommy giggle more and more and more.

Time skip:

Wilbur and his friends had chosen KFC for lunch. We went to Wagamama's just down the street and when we got the message that they were done, met them there. Everyone seemed okay and was thanking us for a nice day out when I noticed Ash was more timid than usual. Despite speaking at our house, we were used to the muteness that came with being uncomfortable in public. So the fact he wasn't talking wasn't concerning. But the fact he wasn't laughing along with the others and kept his eyes trained to the floor, one hand constantly holding his left wrist: it was concerning.

"Everything okay Ash?" I asked as kindly as I could.

Mark spoke up in reply, "he kind of fell and landed on his wrist when we went ice skating."

"Oh ok, thanks for telling me." I turned back to Ash. "When we get back I'll get you an ice pack and some pain relief and if you don't want to stay, we can call your mum to come pick you up?" He nodded in reply and continued to stick around me on our walk to the car. I let Phil know as he was getting into his car, before I bundled into my car with my youngest and eldest. The two of them had enjoyed their own day out together and were currently taking turns playing Crossy Road on Tommy's iPad, switching the control between the two of them whenever the other lost.