Ordinarily Normal

Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

Me.

Dylan Smith.

Yes, that's me.

I'm not much. To be entirely truthful I am nothing. A speck of dust on a shelf called earth, surrounded by other specks who don't understand me. It's Gregory, I blame him entirely, because people just don't get it, I'm not thick, I'm perfectly well educated thank you very much, I just lack the social skills. Gregory is my Autism, when I was 5 I named it to make it seem a little less 'scary' and the name has kind of stuck. Gregory effects everything I do and it causes immense frustration at times. Life is not fair. But this is my story:

At precisely 3:52pm on the 22nd November I knocked on the front door of my house.

No answer

I considered the appearance my house, I liked to do this as it made hidden aspects of the world unfold. The door was a sharp emerald green shade, the pavement was a consecutive collection of 6 grey slabs of concrete. The colour was certainly not a desired one but it did go well with the pot plants I suppose! The grass never withered as my mother loved gardening. The green of the grass is my favourite green its astonishingly bright with a subtle hint of khaki green too. After doing this I knocked on the door again for good measure.

 

No answer.

I thought that this was very odd as my Mum was always here for me. She arrived back at the house at 3:37pm exactly, every day, only to wait for me to arrive home. Today though she wasn't in; luckily I had my front door keys. I took them out of my bag with quite the struggle as my keys are attached to many key rings and then a huge Chelsea lanyard as Chelsea was my favourite football team in the world! Eventually I completed the fantastical mission and shoved the keys in the door turned the lock and took what I like to call 'The Leap of Faith' into the comfort of my home and escaping the big world around me. Once over 'The Leap of Faith' I carefully closed the door behind me and shouted mum.

No Answer with a Capital 'A'.

This didn't faze me, I dumped my bag down on the table and got a kitchen board out. I made a cheese and ham sandwich. Mum only allows us to eat multigrain bread but me and dad keep a stash of thick white bread with no crusts in the corner cupboard behind the washing up liquid and the pack of 250 Dettol antibacterial surface cleansing wipes. Mum has never found them. Having thought about this though, she probably has but it's nice of her not to say anything as it gave a common ground between me and my dad. We don't have that much in common so the white bread with no crusts hidden in a secret place scenario means we share something together and that is nice. I sat down with my freshly made sandwich which could probably beat 'Subway' any day and contemplated where my mum could be.

At the shops, At the dentists, Visiting the Amazon rainforest or Meeting up with Aliens on planet Mars. The list could go on forever and ever and the eventualities are innumerable. She could be anywhere. This made me a tiny bit nervous , just a little, like a drop of blood in a pool of water, I'm the water, the journey is just beginning and sooner or later that pool of water will be red as the fear diffuses and covers all the volume left . I concluded I would text her. I waited for the existing minute to pass and sent the message at 4:14pm on the dot. I decided to then be a 'good boy' like my mum would want and eat an apple. So I did. I actually like apples because they are round, therefore you measure their circumference. This apple's circumference was unknown, concealed and hidden. I disliked this very much so took my calculator out of my school bag and punched in the numbers. The circumference was 75.36777 (recurring). This was a nice size apple.

After eating this 'Apple of delight' I checked my phone. I had the latest iPhone yet the boys at school hold up signs saying 'I'm uncool'! The phones reply was very rude:

NO Answer!

This aggravated me a lot, why wasn't my mum  replying. She should reply, she knows that I get anxious especially when I have no control over certain events for example this one. Eurgh, what to do? No one is home, Mum isn't replying, she's supposed to be in the car with dad so there is no point in texting him and I have no other family to contact! My family doesn't have connections with extended family. I haven't seen my Auntie since I was about 4, yes my 4th Birthday was the last time. Shocking how time can pass in the blink of an eye and yet it feels just like yesterday I last saw Auntie Joan.

Our family were round our house for my Birthday and they had a huge argument over something extremely unbelievably petty. It seems silly to me now and I don't know why they just don't meet up again well I suppose that's just my family for you though. I do miss my Grandpa Michael, he had Gregory like me, we used to laugh about it. These are the best memories I have with my family. Grandpa dealt with Gregory so much better than I did though, he would make fun of his anxiety and was the comedian in the room. I aspire to be like him so much. You know I know so little about him now as my parents even wiped their telephone numbers out of the address book. I disagree with getting rid of numbers and photos because you recorded or took them for a reason and you shouldn't just be able to delete them so abruptly, its harsh and uncalled for. The God wouldn't have liked humans to block people off like that.

I don't like the topic of God though, as there is so countless opinions of God and it confuses me greatly. I think that when there is too many topics on one subject it causes problems especially in something so big such a God those problems lead to conflict. It sounds like I don't believe in God but I do, I most certainly do. I'm thankful to God for giving me a mild case of Gregory as some people like my Grandfather get much worse. I'm also thankful to God for giving me a wonderful home and a safe area to live in but most of all for giving me the most understanding and caring parents in the world. I love them so much it's unreal, I don't think that they know quite how much they mean to me. I would stand in front of them and take a bullet for them to survive. They understand Gregory as much, if not more than I do! Without my Parents I don't know where I would be. I'd probably be a mental psychotic person who is completely lost in who they are and their autism just completely takes over them. That's not who I am though thankfully to my parents and thank you to God for giving me those amazing parents.

Right now, I'm edgy, it's almost as if being alone now I'm living in some sort of horror movie. I cannot take this! Its 5:48pm and my parents still aren't home. It's bugging me now, it's encasing my thoughts and three more drops of blood have been metaphorically added to that pool of water that is supposedly me. Its diffusing quite a lot now but I still have half a clear mind and my heart is only 80bpm which is still in a reasonable range although my normal bpm is 67. This is a slight worry but it is good to have a little fear in your life. Maybe they are purposely doing this to test and see if I can look after myself for an evening. I severely doubt that though, because they should have told me if this is the correct situation.

As my heart cools down from its slightly high moment I gather my unstained thoughts and make a bold decision to ask a neighbour. We don't know our neighbours well but it's still worth a try,  they could have seen a car go off our drive at an odd time as in our house we have a very structured routine. Some could call it similar to a Nazi regime. Everything is very regimented with a strict plan to follow. They do this not to scare me and set off my anxiety because otherwise I would probably live in the hospital. My anxiety is overwhelming and utterly uncontrollable, it's like a hurricane some are huge and lengthy and I am rushed to hospital and am kept under supervised conditions where as some I have learnt to take care of myself. I like those ones as there is not much of Gregory I can control so when I can stop my panics it's a sense of authority over the everlasting autism.

I hope you like it so far...

Thankyou very much for reading