A Different Kind of Normal, Part 3
Written By Charlotte Meryman
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Around them, the room is in mild chaos. Books and papers are piled high, the walls mostly bare. After eight months, the Foards are still settling into their new home, a fixer-upper not far from their old house, in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. They moved in part for Jimmy to have a nice yard and pool (Jimmy loves the water more than anything). The house is bigger, too, and has more bedrooms. Enough, in fact, to tempt Michelle into thinking about — maybe — another baby.
6:30 p.m. Dad helps Jimmy stab the final noodle onto his fork. "Good eating, Jim," Michelle praises, as Jimmy takes his last bite. "Great job, Jim," echoes his father. It's a sure sign dinner is over, and Jimmy kicks his legs in anticipation of a spin on the computer. This new obsession grates on Jim: "He'd stay there all day if we let him." Jimmy chants "Kuh, kuh, kuh, kuh." Jim sighs. "I know. Mommy told you you could."
"You deserve it," Michelle reassures Jimmy. "You work hard all day." To Jim she adds, a bit defensively, "He hasn't done it all day."
6:35 p.m. Jimmy slides out of his chair and makes a beeline for the downstairs guest room. The door is closed, and he struggles with the knob — one of many fine motor skills he still can't manage — until Jim helps him out. In a flash he's in front of the computer, his right hand clutching the mouse, head tilted back, blue eyes peering at the blank screen,vocalizing loudly: "Mmmmm, aaaaah."
