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Mark stood looking on as
the bad boys of the apartments were throwing mud balls at the apartment of
someone they did not like. The dark mud made ugly spots on the white
bricks. As if somehow the man inside had heard he was now out of the door
like a rambling bear. The kids who were comparable to the Dead Inn kids of
an old movie instantly slipped out of his grasp and away. Only Mark who
was around five years old and much smaller was left there. The man grabbed
his arm and started to shake him.
“Hey! Stop that, he wasn’t
involved. Leave him alone.” I didn’t think about the man being big and
burly. All that crossed my mind was that he was hurting my child.
In a rolling walk the man
was headed toward me now. “Oh yeah? Well, maybe you want some of it.” He
was glaring at me from across the complex and was quickly approaching.
True, I was afraid. I have
brothers and I know about the strength of men, even small men, and this
was not a small man.
From behind me, down the
steps a good looking, trim, smaller man, came rushing down “Say! Maybe you
would like to pick on a man instead of kids and women.” There was a fire
and strength about this wiry looking person. His hair was dark and curly
and as he ran his hand through it almost as if was readying himself for a
challenge. His stance was sure, as if to say, “Just come on over here.”
Something about his
attitude must have stopped the cowardly man across from us. He had met his
match and more. With not a word he backed away and disappeared back into
his own apartment.
The incident was sobering
as far as I was concerned. It made me think. It was too much to try to
keep my son confined to an apartment but as I had feared he was at risk
and the reality of this happening confirmed my fears. My thoughts had not
gone to adults harming him but there was a fear of the bigger boys who ran
wild about the place. In a few days these were the one’s to make us decide
to look for something out of the Garland area possibly into the
countryside. Their threats and jerking of my son about while he was
playing gave me reason to believe there was, indeed, a dangerous situation
which potentially could be harmful.
This was only the beginning
of my learning how my children around Rhonda would be persecuted. It was a
strange thing. Individuals couldn’t come up against her personally but
they could attack her brother, my son, or later on, her younger sister.
How my other children managed to survive not only the small people who
troubled them but later, greater forces from above was sometimes a
desperate situation. The attacks on my well children became a harder issue
to confront than my daughter’s disability. It was more insidious and
cruel.
“Shall we do some driving
in the country to see if we can find anything?” Rodney was as willing as I
was to get out of the high dollar location and even though it was
beautiful the place was no longer for us.
“In what direction shall we
look?” I was trying to think about the best way to go.
“We’ll just let the road
lead us as we follow our nose.” Rodney grinned.
“I’m so thankful you can
look at this as some kind of adventure,” I told him, and it was true, I
really did consider myself fortunate to have him with me and for us.
“I’ve been reading in the
paper about how the Plano schools are working with the new government
special education programs.” I commented.
“Oh really! Well, we’ll
just march the column out in that direction.” I often laughed at Rodney’s
comparing his car to a column of troops in the Marines. |
