A Moment of Truth

Driving up to Newcastle we stopped at a service center, because we are both over 50 and peeing now takes up about 30% of our day. The disabled washroom was up quite a steep little ramp, I would have simply used the men's room but the door was too narrow for my chair. Once we got up the ramp we discovered that the key to the washroom was kept at the cashier's desk so Joe went off in search of the key.

A young mother was waiting for her 4 kids to come out of various bathrooms. Her oldest boy was zipping around the area, searching out even the smallest inclines, using his 'wheels in running shoes' to careen him down slopes. "Kirsten, settle down," she said, exasperated as one of his 'whooshes' brought him perilously close to falling. He just grinned up at her and zipped by.

She saw me notice that he had Down Syndrome and gave me 'the face' but I simply smiled at her and went back to watching Kirsten scream with delight as he went down the ramp built for me to get up to the washroom. It was steep and he really travelled as he flew down the ramp. By then his sister, maybe a year younger, was out and made some comment about the brother still in the washroom.

Kirsten flew by her grabbing her and spinning her. She laughed but called after him, "Stop that Kirsten." Seconds later the other boy came out of the washroom and asked if they could all go into the shop before getting back on the road. Mom called Kirsten over and gave them all a lecture that they were not to use the wheels in the shop. That they'd break things. That she'd break them. All agreed.

Quickly Kirsten came to the ramp beside me and called to his mom, "Just one more time," and zipped down the ramp. She smiled over at me with a 'Kids, what do you do with kids' look on her face.

I took a chance and said, "You know, his primary disability is that he's a boy."

She erupted into laughter saying, "You don't know how true that is."