Eradication of the cherry

Walking through the mall, casually shopping for clothes and looking in the various stores along the path, Joel mentioned he would like to get a coke at Chick-fil-A. Gladly accommodating his request, we ambled that direction, entered the fast food restaurant, walked up to the counter and stood in line to order our drinks. Jacob had mentioned he wouldn't mind having a lemonade as well. But the poster of the new Peppermint Strawberry Shake caught Joel's attention.

His eyes shone brightly as he changed his mind and he asked me about getting the shake rather than the coke. I said sure, no problem, and he then said the words, "but no cherry." Being in an agreeable mode, I said yes rather absently and stood in line to order our drinks. Standing in any line is a challenge for me, not being of patient spirit. To pass the time, I can be found reading, looking around, thinking hard, imagining a world without lines, or a plethora of mental activities. In this case, I simply visited another cognitive zone for a few minutes. Finally I ordered the drinks, forgetting unfortunately to ask for the cherry to be excluded.

Receiving the drinks, we left the mall to head for the truck with the goal of driving home. On the way, Joel, in his objective but pointed manner, mentioned that the cherry was in the shake. Not necessarily accusingly nor forgivingly, he pointed out that he did not want the cherry. Climbing into the truck, Joel tried in vain to get the cherry. Refusing to drink the shake with the cherry, he had inadvertently engorged the dastardly object further down into the shake in his efforts to rid the refreshment of its ugliness known as a cherry.

Knowing he would not drink the shake until the cherry was gone, I asked Jacob to help him. Jacob did so and together they dug into the shake, found the cherry, removed the obstacle which Jacob subsequently ate in great haste to encourage Joel to drink his Peppermint Strawberry shake! All was well and Joel was happy.

Joel's autism, a disability since birth, does have an odd and often debilitating result. He gets focused on something and cannot let it go regardless of the seemingly innocuousness of the situation. To us it is just a little cherry in the midst of something wonderful, but to Joel is the central block to enjoyment. Take the problem away and happiness ensues. Our job as parents is to discern and predict the potential enemy before it enters the scene!