Autism Shots

No, not that kind of shot. I mean “shot” in the sense of taking a photo—a snapshot—of a moment, of something you wanted to remember.

3 autism shots from Tuesday, September 16th, in reverse chronological order.

First shot. Pulling out of the parking lot of Target after the purchase of overly mundane items with a Target card from my sister and making our way through more parking lots to the actual exit of a mega-suburban shopping complex, a car putts, pauses, and zooms by us on the right. I see a wall of white stuffed animals in the back window and two autism magnets like this.

Shot the second. Charlie and I go for a walk down the condo-lined boulevard that we live off of. He’s scrunching up his shirt and running ahead and humming; cooler day; we’re happy. I sight a girl around Charlie’s age, beside a red wagon filled with cups and a plastic pitcher and a sign and a box. I had seen her yesterday when the sign (”LEMONADE”) was set up and I’d seen her in the summer at the condo complex’s pool. Then, I met her mother and found out she’s on the spectrum.

She looks right at Charlie as he hurries happily past. She looks at me.

“Hi,” she says.

“Hi,” I say.

Final autism shot of Tuesday the 16th of September takes place as my mythology class is ending. We’re talking about myth and science in fifth and fourth century BC Greece, and also superstition, and do we see these all today in ourselves? I mention various myths about AIDS and a students says “and there’s this theory that says that vaccines cause autism and all the science says no……”

No, I did not think my student was going to say that—the student and the whole class looked a little surprised when I said, well, I kind of write about that topic a lot.

Maybe more than kind of.