Thoughts Left Behind

Park Adventures(General Fiction/Autism)

*General Fiction/Autism*

This is for my little second cousin, Ezra, who has autism. I decided to try writing a story from someone's perspective that has to live with autism, see how they see the world.

"Say cheese Peedy!"

"Cheese Perry!"

The little girl giggled and snapped a photo of the white bird. Peedy chirped and grabbed at the camera in response.

"Peedy is silly," she ran her hand over his head. His eyes closed in contentment and pushed against her palm.

She could hear something resembling her name, but soon turned her attention to the device in her hands.

It had so many buttons, she absolutely loved it and took it with her everywhere.

Peedy waddled over to her and expertly climbed to her shoulder, nipping at her ear and rubbing the spit with his beak right after.

She smiled and sat down on the stone bench Peedy had been on.

"Let's look at pictures, Peedy"

"Okay, okay."

The two sat there, flipping through blurry photos of many things. The girl never noticed the blurriness however. All she saw were the movements and the action within them. It was like she was there again.

Her feet rocked back and forth as Peedy sat quietly on her shoulder, preening himself.

Someone kneeled in front of her, but her attention was solely on the camera, reliving each photo.

"Sarah, we're going to leave in five minutes okay? Five minutes. Do you understand?"

Sarah had caught the last part of her mother's speech. Five minutes, do you understand?

Mom wants to leave in five minutes.

She nodded in response and got up to play. If she only had five minutes she wanted to go on another adventure before then.

Peedy clung do her shoulder as she weaved around the trees, watching the colours blur around her. When she stopped, all the colours separated.

The faster she went, the blurrier it became. She loved watching the colours move around her as she ran as if they were alive too, and were playing with her.

Her game of chase was put on pause when the beat of wings caught her attention. Her eyes moved up to the branches of one of the trees, Peedy chirping in annoyance at all the sporadic movement.

Her eyes scanned the branches. The longer she looked up, the dizzier she felt. It was a weird feeling. A new feeling.

Sarah soon realized if she moved while looking straight up the feeling got stronger.

She giggled and walked around a bit before shaking her head to clear the feeling, a wide smile present on her face.

"Sarah, you have three minutes okay?"

"Okay," she said quickly and stared up again.

Shaking her head again her braid smacked the side of her face. At this point Peedy had moved to avoid her flying hair.

It felt weird.

"Two minutes, Sarah."

Sarah turned her attention to Peedy who was looking in her chest pocket for a snack. She often left cheerios in there and forgot about them. It was fun hiding things. Knowing where they were but not seeing them.

"Peedy, Peedy, Peedy, Peedy!" She sang and skipped around, the rythym and pitch changing in a tune only she could predict.

Sarah loved Peedy. Peedy was her friend.

"Sarah, one minute."

Sarah continued singing and spinning around until her mother came over to retrieve her.

"Time to go home Sarah sweetie."

Sarah was playing with Peedy, him nipping playfully at her fingers.

"Sarah," her mother approached her, "come on, time to go home and feed Peedy."

Go home? Sarah didn't want to go home yet. She was having fun.

Sarah got up and ran to a different tree to play with Peedy at but her mother followed.

"Peedy needs to eat, he's getting tired Sarah," her mother took hold of her arm but Sarah just yanked it free and screamed, running off again.

Her mother heaved a tired sigh but kept her patience.

"No more playing, Sarah. Let's go home now," she lifted the six year old into her arms, taking Peedy and putting him in her pocket to protect him from the inevitable tantrum.

Sarah thrashed back and forth, yelling nonesense. This made sense. She didn't want to go home and this was what made sense to tell her mom exactly that.

Twisting and turning in her mom's arms she couldn't get free. Her mom sat her down in her car seat, swift to buckle her up before she could squirm away. Sarah was still expressing her displeasure in the loudest way possible.

Her mother placed Peedy down on the seat beside her and tried to gain Sarah's attention.

It took a few minutes but once Sarah's attention was on her she spoke softly yet sternly, looking her in the eyes.

"Sarah, it's time to go home. Peedy is tired and hungry, you don't want Peedy to be hungry, do you?"

Sarah's only response was a quick shake of her head.

"Alright, then let's go home and get him his supper, okay?"

Again Sarah only responded with a nod, her attention drifting to Peedy who was searching the seats for cheerios.

*******
So what do you think? I'm pretty happy with this one, it turned out better than I expected though I'm not sure if I portrayed Sarah and her autism properly. Let me know what you think!

See you tomorrow.

Ciao