Constance Procrastination McMahon is a construct. She is based on me and the idea of her came about initially because of something my biological father had the audacity to say to me when I was about to turn 21. My mother had asked him to take me to the airport for our trip to New York for my 21st birthday. He begrudgingly agreed. The last time I stayed with him before the trip though he commented "With the way you fart about in the morning we will need to be up at 5am to get to the airport on time" I rarely ever talked back to him but this time I called his bluff "Fine. Not a problem" I went to bed at 8:15pm BST and was up at 4:45am and dressed in less than 15 minutes (because I made a point of *NEVER* being inappropriately dressed when I stayed with him, due to what happened when I was 5.)

Most of Constance's issues are the same as mine because I actually have Weaver Syndrome and was misdiagnosed with Sotos Syndrome at 3 years old.

However, as I live in the UK, and I am over 12 years old, I cannot get proper testing. I know I am not on the autism spectrum, I have behavioural issues which, we think, are "anxiety" and I have low blood pressure and migraines. I won't risk reproducing for the same reasons as Constance.

I have long suspected that I have ADD, Dyspraxia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia but… it is impossible to get tested unless I go private, which is impossible since I am on state welfare. Due to this, I am only allowed to have a limited amount of savings. For a country that has universal healthcare, the UK sure has plenty of issues with it.

People with rare disorders are overlooked, all the time, and we are treated with contempt and like we are a burden. There are 3.5 million of us in the UK. I bet you can't imagine how infuriating it parents have been divorced since I was 5, my father is not a convicted criminal, but he is a criminal, and he should be in jail. The police here are ableist. The way people with disabilities are treated in the UK is awful and getting worse.

Chapter 20 Break 4

Metatron's point of view

"Constance, you said you would tell us what you meant when you said"

'Unfortunately, my biological father isn't just a child abuser but a violent criminal too. He relishes his notoriety as one of the most dangerous violent criminals in the UK. Unfortunately for him, he is behind bars, serving a life sentence for the assassination of my mother's cousin. My biological father's name is Theodore James 'TJ' McMahon, and I despise him. He is a monster.'

Everyone turned as one to face the child. Her enormous green eyes blinked furiously, as though she were trying to stop the dam within her from breaking. She took a deep breath and began.

"Imagine being born with a disorder so rare that 50 people on the planet have it. 50 people… in total. Imagine having a male biological parent who repudiates the very existence of the idea of this condition, and you with it.

Under the scrutiny of that hypercritical son of a motherless goat, nothing I ever did was right. Nothing my mother ever did for him was right either. He is an ungrateful son of a bitch and he is out of my life for good and I am glad.

Fortunately, I only had to tolerate his hypercriticism for 5 years. My mother and I left when I was 5 because that piece of stunted abusive slime did something so… reprehensible and repulsive I can and will not talk about it.

The consequences of his actions… were a divorce. A permanent loss of custody and contact with me on his part and my mother and I returning to Glasgow — which is where both my mother and I were born, and to the sanctuary of my grandmother and my mother's siblings.

Unfortunately, this happened in 1987 and the progressive views on disabilities that we have nowadays were a lot less progressive. As a result of that lack of progressive thinking, children like me were denied the right to a proper education even though it was illegal.

Parents had to fight for the right to have their children educated in mainstream education, and even then, it wasn't always a successful fight.

Due to that fact, and my mother having to scrimp and scrape to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. Because in 1987 there was ZERO financial support for people with disabilities regardless of whether they were adults or children. And the utter contempt against my person shown by the National Health Service. She made what I consider a very brave decision.

She applied for a job in the Middle East, which she got. Knowing she could not take me with her, she took me to Connecticut, to my father's brother, my godfather. Unfortunately, the soon-to-be former Mrs McMahon hated me, and did not treat me or my cousin very well. My cousin left when I was 10. The soon-to-be former Mrs McMahon — who we were forced to call Aunt Linda — homeschooled us — all of us. Shane, Marissa, Richie, Stephanie, Pepper — who was known as Ginny back then — Aldrich Killian and me. Marissa, Steph, Aldrich, and Pepper were all excellent students, I was middling and Shane and Richie were both poor students with little confidence.

Richie has Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia and ADD. Shane has Dyslexia, ADD and ADHD. Because of having Weaver Syndrome, I have High-Functioning Autism, Depression, Anxiety, migraines, low blood pressure, allergies, ADD, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Apraxia.

Had staying in the UK been an option, getting the tests for neurodivergence would have been damn near impossible. There was very little infrastructure for such things, and the language used was extremely inappropriate. Furthermore, I would have never been allowed meaningful employment in the UK. Such people are restricted, because there is no suitable infrastructure to support us into employment.

At the time, people were still being shut away for being 'different'. My mother instructed my godfather to have me evaluated so that we could see exactly what difficulties I have. So that's what we did.

My original diagnosis was Sotos Syndrome, which is moderately more common than Weaver Syndrome. I was 9 when the diagnosis was changed. No school in the UK would have accepted me as a student, and conversely, we tried sending me to mainstream school but no mainstream catholic school would accept me, or Shane or Richie or Aldrich Killian due to our disabilities.

The psychiatrist who evaluated me did something which at the time was very unusual — she spoke to me about the condition I have. It was very unusual because kids like me were NEVER treated like they were human in those days.

She told me that I am what is known as twice exceptional. The term twice-exceptional or 2e refers to individuals acknowledged as gifted and neurodiverse. In the literal sense, it means a person (usually a child or student but can also be an adult), is, at the same time, gifted at some task, and weak or unable at some other task. Due to this duality of their cognitive profile, the strengths as well as weaknesses and struggles may remain unnoticed or unsupported.

Until mid-1996, in the UK, people like me were still shut away in what I have always referred to as bandboxes. These were long-term wards, with no rights, and we were treated as though they were less than human.

Sure, things have changed, but not enough. Nothing like enough. People like me are still treated as though they are less than. I have taken enough of everyone's time and will shut up presently, but there is one thing I need to add.

If we continue to treat such people with contempt, there will be a rebellion. Let's stop using the slurs beginning with r, h, s and m. Let's use person-first language, let's speak to the patient or the customer and not their chaperone. If you don't know which one is which, ASK Asking questions is not a crime.

My name is Constance Procrastination McMahon, I am a person, I am 15 years old. I have a diagnosis, so rare 50 people on the planet earth have it.

The condition I have is called Weaver Syndrome. There is very little information about it. Just because my brain processes information differently does not mean I am anything less than a person. I wish people would realize that. We need the legislative protection provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act and IDEA.

I became a US citizen in 1994. I was allowed to complete the written portion orally since having a scribe was not an option and my handwriting is awful. The proctor of the exam was very surprised that I had learnt extra information for it.

I have told my mother often that she will never have grandchildren, and I have no intentions of ever marrying. Having such a rare disorder means there is no information on whether I would pass the condition to an innocent, defenceless child. Knowing what I know about it, I would never be cruel enough to attempt it."

A round of applause broke out. Constance took a bow and sat down.
Reminder: if this site is still playing silly beggars, go to my profile, the link to the AO3 version of this story is there. When I get a moment I will put it on Wattpad too.