Paint by Numbers

It's Snowing!

"Janis! Jan wake up! Janis look outside! Please wake up!" Cady yells startling me awake.

"Ugh what time is it."

"It's noon. Now get your butt out of bed and look outside."

I groan not wanting to get out of my warm bed. But I do anyway. Pain shoots though my body as I stand up.

"Picasso!" I call to my big German Shepard laying at the foot of my bed. He immediately gets up and walks to my side. I grab his vest from my end stand and put it on. "Brace" I say putting some my weight on the handle of the vest to ease the pain. He presses up against my legs helping to steady me.

She drags me to the window. " Look! It's snowing!"

I look out the window and sure enough there is fluffy white powder covering every imaginable surface.

I groan.

"Amazing. Can I go back to bed now?" I say my voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Aren't you excited?"

"No it's cold and slippery and wet. I hate snow."

"But it's so pretty!"

I laugh "Okay I'll give you that one it is kinda pretty."

"Why aren't you excited?"

"Because I have lived here my whole life sweetheart. I've seen snow before."

"Oh yeah...can we go show Damien?"

I roll my eyes. "Why not."

Giddily she runs out of my room and downstairs to Damien's.

"Be careful!" I call after her. " I don't want you falling!"

She doesn't so much as slow down as I chase after her as fast as I can.

She runs to his door about to throw it open.       "Hey hey hey! What did we say about just bursting into someone's room?"

"Don't?"

"Good job, what do we do instead?"

"We knock!" She says proud of herself for remembering.

With her autism she can be a handful. I've learned to help her understand little things like social cues and manners. But I know she still has a hard time. And yet I still love her more then anyone else in the world. I love helping her. It makes me feel less helpless. As much as I love Damien he is always up my ass about taking my meds and resting. He sometimes makes me feel like I can't do anything for myself.

"Good job. Go ahead. Knock."

She knocks on the door loudly.

Damien comes to the door. I know he heard our whole conversation but he knows to wait until she knocks to answer. "Hey Caddie." He says what's going on?"

"It's snowing! I've always wanted to see snow because I lived in Kenya and there wasn't any snow there but now it's here and I so happy! Janis isn't excited. She says she has seen lots of snow and she doesn't like it. But I don't know why she wouldn't like it. It's so pretty!" She says a bit too fast.

I wince looking at the confused look on Damien's face as he tries to understand.

"It's snowing." I say "she's excited but I'm not. I told her I don't like snow."

He nods.

"Do you want to see?" She asks jumping up and down.

"Sure" he says.

I watch her as she scrunches up her nose in thought, trying to remember what I have taught her. "Can I come in?" She asks a big proud smile on her face that makes me melt into a puddle.

Damien and I exchange a smile before he invites us in.

She pulls him to the window and excitedly shows him the snow. Telling him all the research she did on snow.

I sit on the bed. For the first time in my life I feel happy to have snow. It makes her so happy and excited and that is all that matters.

I wrote Janis with fibromyalgia again. Tell me what you think. My mom has a service dog for chronic pain so I know that much is pretty accurate. Hope you enjoyed and don't forget to vote!