Uncle Boe
My uncle called me today. He is autistic and semi-retarded. I hadn't talked to him in 3 years and honestly,I was always scared of him. His laughter, his unstable mind, and his loud voice. Today, he called to talk to me. He asked me how school was, how the weather was, if I was surviving the harsh demands life gives you, and I tried my hardest to speak my clearest and to give consistent answers. He told me a story. Every time he meets up with someone, he asks for pennies, "It's for my nieces in California's college tuition. I'm going to be a superhero and pay for it all." People would laugh at him with disbelief but every person would give him a penny or two and he would stack them in shoe boxes underneath his bed. This went on for forty years (he's turning fifty next week) The nurse found the shoe boxes the other day, there was 17 shoe boxes completely filled with copper coins and one half complete. she told him the floor would break pretty soon, and he just laughed. He never took anything seriously but when something occurred unexpected he would become a wild coyote searching for his prey. Anyways, while he was at a baseball game (he could remember every strategy by heart) the nurse went to the bank and exchanged every penny for green papers. He came back and saw a stack of bills on his hospital bed, he could feel a lighter room when he walked in and immediately knew something was up. Though his mind wasn't perfect, he comprehended what had happened. He cried. He cried, and he kept crying. He wanted me to exchange the money, he wanted to be my superhero and prove that even though I saw him once every few years, he thought of me every time he asked someone for a penny. He saw my eyes in strangers, my smile, and my freewill. He then said to me with his Southern Accent, "and right now, sugar, I can hear your smile." I told him that was impossible, but he had spoken the truth. He had composed a smile on my tired face a distance I had never witnessed before. I'll see him during spring break. I won't be scared, i'll have a bag of pennies ready to go and a smile on my face.