"I was thinking I could take the kids to the park this afternoon, let you and dad have some time to yourselves. Maybe get lunch or go to a movie or something," Max told Amy over coffee a Saturday morning while he was home for the summer following his second year of college. "Leo's been wanting to go swing the past few days; I'm sure Katie wouldn't object to going to the park with us."
Amy sipped her coffee and smiled at her now twenty-year-old son. "That sounds nice. It also sounds like they're awake."
Silent to listen for signs of life from the second floor, Max nodded. "That it does. Dad used to always be up early for Dr. Who on Saturdays. How is he still asleep?"
"He set the alarm, but turned it off instead of getting up. I'm sure he won't be happy when he realizes he slept through it, but he'll find a way to watch it later. When do you work next week?" Amy changed the topic before her youngest two children made their way downstairs, ending the quiet morning she'd been enjoying with her son.
Max pulled out his phone, opening the calendar to check his schedule. "I told Stuart I can help him tomorrow and Tuesday. I'm at the pharmacy Monday morning, then Thursday, Friday, and Saturday afternoon slash evening. I don't really need to still work at the comic book store, but I enjoy it and Stuart is willing to work around my schedule at the pharmacy. Did I tell you the pharmacy is probably going to be looking for a new lead pharmacist in the next few years? I'm hoping they can wait at least four years until I can finish undergrad and pharmacy school because I would love the position."
"You've already got your foot in the door as an assistant; they love you there, but don't put extra pressure on yourself. Focus on school and you'll find a great job when you're done with school," commented Amy, turning her head toward the stairs to see Katie and Leo rushing down them. "Here they come."
Max walked behind his siblings as they ran ahead to the playground. Nearing the swing set, six-year-old Leo stopped and looked back at his brother. "Go ahead," Max prompted him to take one of the empty swings. Leo sat on the swing at the end of the row and waited for a push. "Do you want me to push you, too, Katie?" He noticed she was twisting back and forth on her swing.
"No, I want to spin. It makes me dizzy and feels funny," the seven-year-old answered.
Chuckling, Max continued pushing his brother's swing, "Okay. Let me know if you change your mind."
Leo was content on his swing while Katie ran towards the other kids climbing up to go down the slide. "Stop," Leo quietly instructed his pusher. Max slowed the swing down, allowing Leo to get off the swing set. "I want to slide."
"Do you want help climbing up there?" Max offered, but was met with a shake of Leo's head, declining his offer.
Slowly walking to the other end of the playground, Leo stood at the bottom of the ladder to the slide, deciding if he really wanted to climb up. Katie, having just come down the slide, came up behind him. "I'll go up right behind you if you want," she waited for her brother to begin the climb to the platform in front of the slide.
Leo reached the top of the ladder and beamed proudly at Max, who had been watching the interaction between his brother and sister. Katie waved at her brother, who now moved to the bottom of the slide to wait for Leo. As the line of kids behind the pair grew, Katie encouraged her brother to go down the slide. "It's okay, Leo. Max will catch you. He's good at catching me, so he'll be good at catching you, too."
"I'm scared," Leo backed up from the top of the slide. "I don't want to."
"Do you want me to go with you?"
"Hurry up, baby," a girl a few years older than Katie shouted at Leo. "Some of us aren't scared of a little slide."
Katie turned from her brother to see who was yelling at them. Spotting who it was that was taunting them, Katie took a step and pushed the girl. Max spotted this interaction and immediately moved from where he had stationed himself at the bottom of the slide at the same time the other child's adult moved closer to the slide. "Kathryn Elizabeth, get down here right now. You don't push other kids." Max's yelling caused Leo to start crying where he still stood at the top of the slide.
As Katie made her way down the slide, Max climbed up to help Leo down. "Come on, buddy. I'll help you down." Getting Leo back on the ground, the other child's adult approached the group.
"She pushed my daughter."
"She called Leo a baby. He's not a baby, he was just scared of how high up the slide is. Mommy told me sometimes he gets scared of things that other people might not be scared of," Katie defended her little brother to the woman.
Max looked down at his sister, "Thank you, Katie, but I'll talk to her." Turning his attention to the woman in front of him, Max shared, "He's got autism. He usually doesn't want to go down the slide because of the height, but he wanted to try today. He got up there and froze. It sounds like your daughter didn't like how long he was taking."
The other girl approached the group after having gone down the slide, "He was taking forever, mom. You said I have to be quick so other kids can take their turn, but he wasn't being quick."
"I'll talk to her, I'm sorry this happened, but you should tell her," the woman pointed at Katie, "she shouldn't be pushing other kids, especially at the top of the slide. Someone could have gotten hurt."
Max nodded in response to the woman's scolding, "I'll have our parents talk to her when we get home. I think it's time we leave."
Max returned home with his siblings, not saying anything about the incident at the playground to either of them, instead opting to let their parents handle the situation. Katie retreated to her room for most of the afternoon while Leo insisted Max play with his dinosaurs with him. "We're home," Sheldon announced, causing his sons to look up from where they were sitting on the living room floor.
"I've gotta talk to mom and dad for a minute, but I'll be right back," Max excused himself from the dinosaurs and motioned for his parents to go into the kitchen. "There was an incident at the playground so I brought them home early."
"What happened?" Amy interrupted her son.
Taking a breath, Max recanted what happened earlier that day. "No one got hurt, so you can relax. Leo decided he wanted to try going down the slide and Katie followed him. He got to the top of the slide & froze. Another little girl yelled at him to hurry up and called him a baby. Katie didn't like that and pushed the girl. The other girl's mom was there & was kinda upset that her daughter could have been hurt since they were at the top of the slide, but did apologize once I explained about Leo. I made Katie get off the slide right away & told her we don't push other kids. She's been up in her room since we got home; she went by herself, I figured you'd want to talk to her, and making us leave the playground right away was punishment enough from me."
Sheldon sat at the table and put his head in his hands. "We need to talk to her, Amy. Max never pushed other kids, did he? What do we even say to her?"
Amy shook her head. "I never had to deal with something like this with him. It sounds like she was looking out for Leo. Let's go upstairs and get her side of the story; find out what she was thinking when she pushed that girl."
Amy followed Sheldon to their daughter's room. "Katie Beth," he repeated three times as he knocked on the door.
"Hi, mommy. Hi, daddy," the girl looked up from her dollhouse. "Did Max tell you what I did at the playground?"
"He did," replied Amy, sitting on the bed with Sheldon sitting next to her. "You've never done anything like that before. What happened today?"
"That girl called Leo a baby cuz he was scared about going down the slide. I didn't like that, so I pushed her," the girl quietly explained to her parents, while not making eye contact with either of them.
Sheldon reached out for his daughter to come closer. "Why didn't you like that?"
Katie shrugged her shoulders. "She was making fun of Leo. You told me that sometimes Leo is going to do things differently or that he might be scared of stuff I'm not scared of."
Pulling Katie between herself and Sheldon, Amy smiled at her daughter. "That's right, sweetheart. Something to remember is that not everyone knows that and that it isn't nice to push other kids when they make fun of Leo or anyone else for that matter."
"Am I in trouble?"
Exchanging a look with Amy, Sheldon shook his head. "Max told us he made you leave the park early. We think that's punishment enough for you since you were looking out for Leo and that's your job as his big sister. Can you promise us that you won't do something like this again?"
Hugging her father, Katie questioned, "But what if someone makes fun of Leo again?"
"You get me, or daddy, or Max, or whoever the grownup is you're with and let them take care of it," suggested Amy. "Does that sound good?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry I pushed that girl."
Thanks for continuing to read. Just wanted to let you know the next update won't be until Saturday, which is a little longer than I've been doing between updates, but I'm headed to Florida for a few days to see some friends from my old job. It's currently snowing here, so I'm looking forward to a little warmth.
