Family and Home part 6
Auggie climbed up the stairs and trailed his right hand slightly along the wall when he had taken the last step. Seconds later, he entered his son´s room and stumbled over a load of Lego bricks displayed on the floor.
Jeremy sat on the floor playing Lego and was still in his pyjamas. Auggie carefully made his way over to his son and said.
„Hey, you have to hurry, today is your first school day"
„But Dad, I have to finish the Lego house first before I go"
Now Auggie squatted and tried to meet his son´s gaze when he took the little boy by his shoulders and explained.
„You have to be punctual when you are a school kid. You cannot arrive whenever you want and disturb the teacher´s lesson. So hurry up and put your shoes on. There is still time for a short breakfast before we go.
„But Dad, I am still in my pyjama" Jeremy said with a grin that Auggie could hear in his voice.
„What? I thought you had already brushed your teeth and gotten dressed"
Auggie shook his head incredulous of what he had just heard.
„Get up from the floor right now and grab the clothes that Mum has already prepared for you on the chair."
„But Daddy..." Jeremy protested again before he was cut off by Auggie´s stern voice
„Jeremy Anderson, if you don´t get up the next second and start to get dressed, I will get very angry and you know what that means." Auggie´s voice had gotten a bit louder and his tone warned Jeremy to better obey.
The little boy rose from the floor and went over to the chair where Annie had prepared a pair of new black jeans, a red shirt and some socks and underwear. He started to get dressed and Auggie listened carefully before he turned, walked to the door and said.
„I´m going to have breakfast now with your Mum, if you want some, you better hurry. Otherwise you will start your first school day hungry."
Auggie made his way to the kitchen again where Annie had laid the table and was about to pour coffee for Auggie and herself and some hot chocolate for Jeremy.
Two minutes later Jeremy appeared as well and took a seat next to Auggie.
„Did you really want to be late on your first school day and keep your friends and everybody else waiting for you?" Annie asked when Jeremy had taken the first bite of his strawberry jam toast.
„No Mum, but I need to finish my Lego house"
„You can do that darling when you are back this afternoon" Annie replied sipping on her coffee. Whilst Auggie felt for the butter on the breakfast table and spread it on his toast.
Jeremy had always been difficult, when it came to leaving on time in the morning. He always found something that he urgently needed to do before leaving for Kindergarten and Annie and Auggie had a hard time to make him leave punctually. Kindergarten was one thing, but school was something else. There was no excuse for being late and Jeremy had to learn that. The earlier, the better.
Half an hour later Annie got the car out of the garage, Auggie grabbed his white folding cane from the dresser and got the new school bag that he and Annie had bought for their son. It was blue and had dinosaur pictures. Jeremy loved dinosaurs and enjoyed listening to dinosaur stories and playing with toy dinosaurs.
Jeremy came out of the bathroom after washing traces of strawberry jam and chocolate off his mouth and exclaimed „Wow what a great school bag! DINOSAURS!"
Auggie smiled „Do you like it?" Annie had described how the school bag looked and now he was happy that his son liked it.
„Of course I like it" Jeremy said and took the bag out of Auggie´s hand.
„Okay, then let´s go now"! Auggie unfolded his cane and followed his son to the door and down the three steps to the gravel path where Annie was waiting in their car.
Auggie helped Jeremy to attach the belt of the seat carefully before he sat down next to Annie and the three made their way to the local primary school.
Fifteen minutes later they arrived at the school building. Auggie and Jeremy got out of the car and Annie followed after she had found a free spot to park their Mercedes. Jeremy´s friends and their parents were already waiting for him.
„Hey what a great school bag" Jeremy´s friend Tom said when he saw Jeremy´s dinosaur bag.
„Yeah it is really fantastic" Jeremy said and proudly showed the blue bag to his friend.
„Mine is red and has got a number of cool race cars and trucks" Now Tom showed his own school bag to Jeremy and both boys compared their new bags and the school accessories inside. There were pencils, an ink pen, a couple of work books and a number of other school items.
Five minutes later, Jeremy sat in his new classroom with Tom and his other Kindergarten friends and listened to the words of his new teacher.
The friendly young lady introduced herself to the kids and their parents.
„Good morning everyone, I am happy to see all of you here on your first school day. My name is Samantha Williams and I will be your teacher for the first four years here at school"
And then Mrs. Williams explained to the kids and parents what was on schedule for the next few weeks for the school starters.
Auggie and Annie and the other parents were waiting in the back of the classroom and were listening to the words of the teacher. When Mrs. Williams had finished her explanations she said.
„Today is your first day here at school, to make it easier for you there will only be two lessons. Your parents can pick you up in one hour and a half. But from tomorrow on, you will be here until noon every day. I hope we will have a lot of fun learning and working together."
„She sounds nice" Auggie said turning towards Annie, when they headed to the door with the other parents. Auggie had taken Annie´s arm and kept his cane diagonally in front of him as a signal for others. He felt a bit uncomfortable. Jeremy´s Kindergarten friends and their parents knew him but when he made new acquaintances it was sometimes difficult. Most people did not know how to act around a blind person and some of them even assumed he was mentally retarded or deaf when they spoke to him. He would need some time to get to know the other parents and teachers.
Jeremy sat in the classroom with the other kids. Mrs. Williams had asked the kids to draw a picture and to write their name on the back of the sheet when they were finished. Jeremy carefully chose the colours for his picture. There were ships, a lake and some trees. Jeremy´s friend Tom sat on his left and to the right there was Steven, a boy he had not known before. All the kids in the classroom were busy with their pictures and Mrs. Williams slowly walked through the room admiring each single picture.
After a while, Steven turned a bit towards Jeremy, looking at the picture the boy was drawing and asked „Did you see the man with the white stick here in the classroom this morning?"
Jeremy stopped drawing, looked up to his neighbour and said „The man is my Dad and it is not a stick it is a cane"
„And what is he doing with this cane?" Steven asked with curiosity
With an expression that could have belonged to a unversity professor and in a slightly condescending tone Jeremy replied „My Daddy is blind. Blind people use a cane to get around so that they will not walk into something"
Steven looked astonished. He had never seen a blind person before but he knew what the word blind meant. He said „My daddy always reads to me when I go to bed. How can your dad read to you when he cannot see?"
„My dad can read with his hands" Jeremy explained proudly. „He has a book with lots of tiny dots and every dot is a letter"
„That sounds funny" Steven replied „Can I see this book ? I want to know what it looks like"
„You have to come and visit, then I will show you" Jeremy said before he picked up his colour pencils again and continued drawing.
An hour later, Jeremy´s first school day was over. Annie waited for him in front of the building whilst Auggie remained in the car. He had a call to make and was talking on his Iphone. Joan had an important question and he was discussing an urgent matter with her on the phone.
Jeremy stormed out of the building „Mummy, Daddy, look what I have drawn!"
The little boy proudly showed his picture to Annie and both walked to the car a few feet away from the school building. When Annie opened the door of the car, Auggie had just finished his call with Joan. He turned a bit in his seat towards Annie and Jeremy and asked
„So how did it go on your first day"`?
„It was good" Jeremy answered and then he started to describe the picture he had drawn to his dad. Auggie smiled. His little son had a lot of intuition. He knew that his father could only see through his descriptions. Jeremy was only six, but it was a natural habit for him to describe everything to his dad or to place it in his hands so that he could explore it.