The walker supports Don from the bottom of the step to the schoolbus each weekday morning, then stands near the juncture of our driveway and the main driveway while he is away at school.

I have been watching for the Big Healing for Don to take place this year, gift from The Sky, answer to my New Year’s Wish. It hasn’t happened, and if it doesn’t before 2004, it will be the first time I’ve made a NY’s wish that didn’t come true.

Why? I wonder. Is it because it’s a bunch of malarky? Or is it because we are not permitted to alter the life path of another? It’s one thing to wish for a new home, or a new love, or a career path. All of these are things I wished for myself. But maybe Don needs his life to be the way it is, and changing it drastically is not my call.

Rationalization in case of malarky?
Or truth; old knowledge ignored when I made the wish?

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The Special Needs teacher called to talk about Don’s progress in school.

He is learning at an astonishing rate in his Math and reading this year; he is “my star pupil,” she said. “He has won the hearts of everyone in the school,” she added. “He is so friendly; we all love him. Of course, you’ve heard this before.”

“I have. Everywhere he’s been, his whole life. But I never get tired of hearing it.”

The way she is talking, he has improved dramatically in the area of academic comprehension. Maybe he is crossing over an intellectual threshold of some sort. His teacher seems excited.