Aspergers by ~TheSchemingNocturne

Aspergers
by ~TheSchemingNocturne

You tease him.
Push him.
Mock him.
Lie to him.

And he takes it all.

He doesn't understand. Or maybe he does and doesn't let on. He always has been one to want attention.

No. That was wrong. Not attention. He wants friends. He wants people who don't make fun of how he dresses or the things he likes. He wants people who don't egg him on for a laugh or call him names and make fun of his (often less than socially acceptable) mannerisms.

He doesn't see where he is wrong though! Oh, no. He can't tell when an appropriate time to make goofy faces is, or how Nazi jokes aren't very funny when in serious discussion. He doesn't know that words like "fag" and "retard" are not words he should be throwing around so casually, especially when they are the same words people call him.

I have tried to teach him these things. And I will continue to. People will make fun of me for trying, and soon I will be the butt of these jokes as well. (In fact, I'm sure I already am. I'm too quiet for their liking; too nervous.) But that doesn't matter. What they say is irrelevant. I don't care if he throws poorly used sarcasm at me for the rest of my life. I don't care if he wears Velcro shoes or talks about Disney movies all the time. I even can get by his over-the-top stereotyping of males and females.

Why? How?

Because I care. Why shouldn't I? Maybe it's previous experience with people who have the same condition as he does, or maybe it's just my gut, but that doesn't matter. I care far too much to concern myself with the reasons I care in the first place. All I care about is helping him. Saving him from an inevitable death. He is a smart boy. He really is. But he is chained down not by himself, but by a lack understanding from you, and the only way to break these chains is not to comply really, but rather blend in. And when he does, when you no longer see the difference between him and yourselves, you will have to cut the chains and liberate him.

This is not to say that he won't carry scars. He will go on dragging them along in the dust. But maybe, just maybe, if he can, he will escape from the sight of all of you who held him down and he will shake those chains loose. They will fall to the ground and he will fly away to where he belongs. To where he has friends.

http://theschemingnocturne.deviantart.com/