Once again, Wednesday has arrived, and with it our fearless ringmaster, Rochelle has donned her red coat and top hat, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls”, she announces with a crack of her whip. Issuing the challenge to join her at the circus known as Friday Fictioneers. https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/. Under her discipline we climb to the high wire to present a story in approximately 100 words.
Other acrobats have posted, their back-flips and somersaults can be found here: http://www.inlinkz.com/new/view.php?id=623923
This week’s picture courtesy of Kent Bonham led me down a path that my grandson walks each day.
Brett is autistic, although reading and writing are skills he has not mastered in his 21 years, he can speak, articulating some of the effects of his condition.
April is Autism Awareness Month. I dedicate this little tale to Brett and all who deal with Autism, in its many guises. Maybe it will raise awareness a bit as well. I can hope.
Sound Prison
“Sensory overload” the therapist calls it, “meltdown” in layman’s terms.
People gather around, invading the circle of ‘personal space’, gesturing, talking.
Afraid to approach.
But too near and too loud for the boy.
No matter what, he hears it all. There are no filters.
No way to block the beating
The words have form and substance, invisible,battering.
They swirl around, floating shapes, sweeping in, crushing.
Rhythms pound, hammers in his mind.
Varied tones stab like knives.
He has to close it off! It has to stop!
And so, he sits on the floor, rocking.
Withdrawn, locked in his alternate universe,
Forced to submission by the weaponry of sound.
Oldentimes's Blog 
A perfect example of what happens when a meltdown occurs. My sister and her two sons are both autistic, and their lives sometimes seem to be shaped by this. Well done for speaking for them!
thank you. I was hoping to get the pain and emotion across. Since you have experience as well, I feel I have. Brett’s advice ‘stay away from crowded places’, and we try.
Dear Mary,
I’m stunned. You’ve painted a sharp and painful picture of autism. Too well done for words.
Shalom,
Rochelle
thank you, Rochelle. I used some of Brett’s description and some of my own observations.
Very descriptive writing.
thank you for reading.
A very good discription of what it’s like to deal with Sensory overload. I have one child on the spectrum and two of my children have Sensory Processing Disorder. It can make life challenging lol. Fantastic take on the prompt ! Heidi 🙂
thank you so much. What they go through is so hard for most of us to understand, I hope to raise some awareness with this piece.
Wow. Your last line is so powerful and humbling…making us wish we were better as human beings in our fight to help those in need by gaining more understanding of what they are going through. Painted so vividly, their lives are something to marvel at and support where we can.
Thank you for sharing.
Interesting that you should be inspired the way you were with my photo, Mary. My brother suffers from autism, too! His is higher functioning and he does well, has a job, can communicate a lot better than he used to, but it is a challenge nevertheless. As for the content of the poem, you more than nailed it. Who knew??? Awesome!
Thank you! Thank you! The photo actually reminded me of some of Brett’s drawings, which led into the piece.
Really? Too awesome.
really
The mind is a powerful tool, yet so fragile all at once.
Well written.
thank you for reading and stopping to leave a comment.
This cuts right through to the essence of ‘meltdown’. Perceptively well written.
thank you so much, Sandra. I appreciate you comment.
A great piece of writing that gets right under the skin of something many people struggle to explain
Thank you. I read you post and see we traveled similar roads this week. Brett’s drawings are like these.
Very authentic description.
Thank you for your kind comment.
You make it so vivid how the world can be with autism – to me it sounds like the few times I have had really bad fever..
It can be pretty bad!
So well described. I have a nephew on the spectrum so…
thank you, Dale!
Life is so difficult for some of us. Your story builds a heartbreaking picture of the battle to deal with things those of us without such challenges regard as nothing at all – a bit of noise, a crowded place. I have a grandson who is blind, so our family life isn’t without its challenges too. We are forced to rethink everything to find ways to make their lives better. Thank you for sharing this beautiful story.
thank you Margaret for the lovely compliment.
Insightful and very moving. Written with understanding, empathy and an appeal for compassion and tolerance, this piece toches the heart and is a great take on the prompt.
thank you so much Emmy.
Great piece. My Godson’s brother is autistic so I’ve read around the subject. It would be helpful if there were some sort of device readily available to allow non-autistic people to experience this, so we know better what to do (or not to do).
interesting and innovative idea. Perhaps there are grants available for a project like that.
Really well written. Great descriptions. A fascinating take on the prompt.
Thank you for reading and leaving a comment
Great and powerful writing, and helpful for those of us to understand better what’s going on, and maybe help by just staying away. I’ve seen a video about a young boy just the other day, where exactly these symptoms of the meltdown were explained with pictures and sound. Your story compliments that perfectly.
Thank you gah, I so appreciate your kind words.
Such a reflective piece. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate you reading and commenting
My heart goes out to you. Its hard to see your children suffer and be unable to help. Its harder still to be helpless when your grandkids suffer. May God bless you with grace!
Thank you, yes, you are right it is hard to see and not be able to ‘do’ anything. We are blessed to have Brett, disabilities and all. Sweetness and caring abound in that you man!
I can’t think of anything to say without sounding inane. It is an unfamiliar situation for me, knowing nothing about autism. I do know that in difficult circumstances, strength and compassion is somehow found to deal with the extraordinary. Blessings please.
thank you very mch
What an incredible depiction of what this condition must be like! I know some folks who have autistic children and it is a constant challenge and one that is difficult for us to understand. Your writing has made it somewhat easier to comprehend. Great job.
Thank you Perry, one of my goals was to try to raise some awareness, your comment makes me feel like I was successful
I considered writing about an autistic child, but decided against it because I have almost zero knowledge of this subject, aside from what I’ve seen on TV. You were able to actually go inside the autistic mind. Well done!
thank you Josslyn. I am glad you ‘felt’ it.
You’re welcome. 🙂
What a deeply empathetic and painful piece of writing — I feel for those who have to deal with autism, both the person who has it, and the people around him/her. So much unconditional love is needed, so much patience, so much willingness to deal with the response of some autistic people to intense sensory overload!
You’ve really captured it here!
thank you
You’re welcome!
We have so much to learn from each other. A very moving response to the prompt.
thank you very much.
thank you
A 10 year old boy with autism used to attend our church. In many ways, he was brilliant. He could recite passages of scriptures verbatim months after reading them only once.
However, if you asked him to change the way he was doing a task, he often had a melt down. Great kid. I still think of him often.
indeed, routine and scheduling are aq big part of living with autism. Something happened to break our Friday routine today, it was not pretty to see the result. Thankfully, we have passed that and are back to what works here.
That was beautiful.
This was a very powerful piece of writing. Brilliantly done.
Thank you, glad you came by.
Autism can be such a cruel task master. You portrayed the character well.
it can be cruel. It is hard for people to understand
Yes it is.
Sush a vivid description of autism – or was it ‘just’ a meltdown? Either way, brilliant words.
I have often seen sound as a nasty weapon. But you described it so well. Mike
thank you for coming by and commenting
Because of your story describing the suffering of your grandson, I now understand autism better. I hope some day they’ll find methods that work better to help those with autism. Well written, Mary. —- Suzanne
thank you very much
wow, thank you so much got your recognition! I am a long time Trekkie and I loved your post. I hope Troi had extras 😉