You are John’s autistic child. When you were diagnosed with autism John didn’t expect it, he just thought you were a weird child. But he was okay with it, he can deal with it. How different it is from taking care of a normal child and an autistic one? A lot actually.

You took longer than normal to start walking or doing anything. You act like you’re still a baby, don’t react to your name, don’t make eye contact, hate physical contact, often have repetitive behavior and is very aggressive.

But the worst of it all… You were nonverbal. You never talked, barely made any noise except crying when you were a baby. Now, you’re already a kid, past toddler, and still didn’t say a single word. It did concern John, he took you to a lot of doctor but all said the same thing.. ‘they’re nonverbal’. John was tired of waiting, but forced himself to be patient.

John invited the team over to his house for a little party, burgers, booze and chatting. You were there, of course, but with your noise-canceling headphones on and a juice box in hand. You were sitting next to John in a chair while he talks to his team happily, just chatting. You were just listening, enjoying to be next to your dad.

Then you saw the sandwich one of his friends, Simon, was eating. You wanted one too, but you’d have to tell him you wanted it. You tugged on John’s shirt, opening your mouth and trying to say the word ‘sandwich’, just a few sounds got out, but you were slowly doing it.

Seeing you try to speak made John freeze, he was gonna hear your first word, he needed to hear it. He couldn’t move, just stare and wait for you to speak. The team was also frozen, waiting to see if you’d actually speak.