ALLISON'S TENDERNESS

~ A Short Story By Franklin Campusano ~

       I can't possibly express the joy I feel. As a father, I could not be much prouder, much happier. And the funniest thing is, is that I don't know why I feel this way. 

    Obviously, when your son or daughter does something worthy of praise, as a parent, the natural thing is for us to feel proud and joyful for what our daughter or son have done, but with all honesty, I can't quite process the situation at hand. 

    Allison and I have a four-year-old daughter named Allison. She's an autistic. Despite this, she is a high functioning autistic child. This means that our daughter Allison can speak, only when she wants and only when it is convenient for her.  

    Allison is also very smart, more often than not both my wife Allison and I are left amazed by some of the things she does. For example, she is very well adept with the piano, although she doesn't fully know how to play it, she can still play simple songs that actually have a degree of rhythm. Allison also likes to draw and read a lot as well. 

    Overall, raising an autistic child is a challenging yet rewarding experience. Recently, both my wife Allison and I have been noticing a rather peculiar change of pattern on our baby daughter's behavior. 

    First of all, after being dropped by the school bus, Allison would more often than not go to watch the afternoon cartoons on the TV. By that time my wife Allison would have her food ready, and we would let our daughter watch her cartoons while she eats, watching cartoons helps her eat her food. 

    After her favorite cartoon shows are over, Allison heads upstairs to her playroom. After finding out that Allison is autistic, both my wife and I decided to repurpose our guess room into Allison's playroom. We painted this room with a white color and painted flower patterns in the room, then we filled the room with toys. 

    Among these toys we have lots of plushies, doll houses, dolls, tons of building blocks, a piano, lots of crayons and markers and a big drawing board, and more. This measure proved fruitful in our case; Allison loves it. Allison's playroom is a room where Allison is allowed to be Allison. Being a very energetic child, Allison likes to jump around and sometimes throw things, which can be annoying to us, but we decided that in this room, that being, Allison's playroom, she's allowed to do all of that. 

    Recently though, we been noticing that Allison has not been spending her time in her playroom no more or at least not as often, after eating her food, Allison instead goes right over to her room and stays there for pretty much the rest of the day. Even on weekends, Allison gravitates more to her room than the playroom or backyard. 

    This has been going on for about two weeks by now. And both Allison, my wife and I been wanting to know what is going on. Our baby is very territorial and doesn't like us and by extension anybody going into her room. And whenever we asked her about what is going on, our baby either stays quite or says: "nothing."  In reply. 

    Because of this, both my wife, Allison and I decided to seat down and figure out a way to find out what Allison is doing without triggering her. Our consensus was to hide a small camera in her room. Obviously, we would place the camera in place Allison won't notice and while she is still in school. 

    When Allison was a baby, we would have a baby monitor installed in her room to keep check on her, but we ended up giving it away to a friend of ours who were having a baby of her own once we didn't need the monitor anymore. 

    So, we ordered a small camera and set it up in Allison's room while she wasn't at home and waited. Once we got to see the footage both Allison and I were very surprised. First of all, after shutting herself in her room, our daughter Allison would take a small bag of seeds and corn from her backpack. 

    Allison would then open her closet door slightly and put the bag of seeds inside. She would then go inside the closet and would stay in there for an extended period of time. Sometimes we would notice her leaving the room, going to the kitchen, fill a glass of water, and return to her room. 

    After this, Allison and I became suspicious and concerned. Is our daughter keeping a pet in secret? We have tried having an emotional support pet before, but our daughter is allergic to both cats and dogs. Despite this, our daughter has always had a deep desire to have an animal of her own. 

    We waited till Allison went back to school again before we entered her room again, when we opened her closet door, we were not prepared for what we would then see. 

    A pair of Mockingbirds. She had them inside a box filled with leaves. Our daughter Allison has been caring for these Mockingbirds for these past two weeks. 

    Allison and I locked eyes, we could not help it, we cried, tears of joy of course. We were so flabbergasted by this finding and our hearts literally melted inside. In a way, Allison has become a mom of her own and is raising these birds. We replaced the water for the birds and refilled their feeder which was on a little plate that Allison took from the kitchen without us noticing. We also decided to take the box outside the closet and place it near the window so that the birds could get a bit of sunlight. 

    Allison and I know nothing about caring for Mockingbirds and we could not even get the most miniscule idea of how Allison got these birds. We called our local veterinary who suggested to bring them over, so Allison and I did just that. 

    The veterinarian checked the birds to see if there's anything wrong with them. They were in fact a little weak but overall, well. Their wings were groomed, which means that someone had them as pets before. Who could have given Allison these birds? 

    We purchased a cage for the birds and purchased ourselves a few bags of seeds and bird food and took the birds' home. 

      Allison's reaction of shock upon arriving home was to be expected. She found both my wife Allison and I playing with the birds. Our baby Allison seemed nervous, but we reassured her that everything was okay. 

    After we sat down with her to talk a little about the matter, the truth was finally spilled. It was on the field trip that Allison's class went to two weeks ago. If I remember, the class was visiting a nearby farm. It was there were the birds were given to Allison. Apparently, she told the teachers that she had our permission to take the birds. She then brought the birds to her room and has been caring for them since. 

    Allison begged us to not take the birds away. Obviously, we were not going to take them away, it seems that since we had to take her emotional support dog and cat away because of her allergies, Allison had the impression that we didn't want her to have pets. We reassured her that that is far from the truth and that is quite the contrary. 

    We had to take the animals away to ensure Allison's health, but she is more than welcome to keep the Mockingbirds. In the end, we kept the birds and up to this day it has been a joy have them as an addition to our household. 

    We are so glad we are raising Allison; she has brought to much happiness to our lives. Thanks God. 

End of The Story