He opened the door at the end of the hall, and his arm extended again.
“Here we are, child.”
He directed her into a tiny room, no more than a closet.
“Sit, sit,” he said, his voice gnawing on her nerves.
His nose flared.
“Achoo! Excuse me, while I get a Kleenex. We have a lot to accomplish, and I don’t have a lot of my time to spend on you and your problems. Sit down, child, and let’s begin!”
Karen saw how far below him he thought she was. She sat down in one of two white, wooden, spindle-legged chairs, by a two by three foot white porcelain table. On the table were a thick tan file labeled with her name, a stack of testing cards, pencils, pens, a puzzle, a mirror and a coffee cup. The stark white walls had been textured to make the atmosphere warm, but without any pictures or personal touches they still looked sterile. The room was cold, and when she touched the table, it felt icy. She shivered and looked up at him.
So glacial. So very, very glacial and as hard as arctic ice. There is no kind presence, here.
Feeling trapped, she forced herself not to feel limited. She forced herself to focus. She used her willpower to remember how strong and intelligent she was, but she still felt her nervous system failing.
This is how Pegasus must have felt before he came to life, before I rescued him, when he was trapped and thrown on a heap with all the other horses.
Dr. Muñoz began his examination by frowning at her and asking questions in rapid fire, his deep voice taut with urgency. Regardless of what he asked, her stressed nervous system rearranged her sensory input. With every word he spoke, she forgot the word that came before. She could neither visualize them nor recall their sounds. The harder she tried, the more difficulty she had. She could not give the right answers, even though she knew that they were somewhere in her mind. She tried to match his level of insistence, but the more she demanded of herself, the less she could recall.
He asked her about the physics of falling rain and about the names of famous musicians. She understood gravity and condensation in cumulus clouds, and she tried to explain them to him, but she could not find the words. She and her mother delighted in Louis Armstrong, but with Dr. Muñoz’s accent, she thought he was asking her about Elouisa Armstrong, and so he noted that she was unable to appreciate music. Her only relief came when Dr. Muñoz had her assemble some jigsaw puzzles. These were easy, spatial, and nonverbal.
She felt herself becoming exhausted, as the tests drained her of all emotional and intellectual energy. Every effort to bring up a correct response depleted her energy more.
As the session ended, he asked her to repeat groups of numbers back to him, and she trembled inside. This was a decoding problem, her weakness, and exactly what she could not do when she was stressed. Body stiff and rigid, involuntarily shaking, her apprehension grew. She repeated back the numbers: 5, 76, 632, 936, 1066, 90401 and 666064 but she could not see the links between them or recall their order. She knew she must be transposing them and felt overwhelmed. Failure on this part of the test would lower her score even more than not being able to add or subtract without pencil and paper.
The hour with the psychologist seemed like a year with a torturer, and then she was finished. Done.
Without thanking her or giving any encouragement, Dr. Muñoz coldly said, “You can leave, now.”
He pointed to the door, only inches away.
Original Text ©2022, Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved.
Original Text ©2022, Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved.
As the bus continued its journey from her new home to her school, Karen recalled when she first met Mrs. Pinzetti, the physical therapist who replaced Mrs. Schmidt.
The new physical therapist was a nice lady with a kind manner. Mrs. Pinzetti always dressed well and wore perfume, makeup, and big golden hoop earrings. She usually wore a sweater with slacks under her white coat with the Physical Therapy patch on the left shoulder. Athena Pinzetti was beautiful, so beautiful that a sculptor could have chiseled her out of marble. Her thick, black hair was styled in a fashionable contour cut, with the back shorter than the sides. She had an olive complexion and thick, lush lips. She also had a round scar below her high left cheekbone. It was not a birthmark, but a small area on the surface of her skin that stood out, so unusual in color and form that people stared at it.
She stretched Kitten’s left arm and leg gently, and she promised never to hurt her. She called her Sugar and treated her with the greatest respect. Karen thought she was almost as wonderful as Miss Kimiko. However, as nice as Mrs. Pinzetti was, she did not have Miss Kimiko’s happy spirit. Her sullen, resentful irritability came and went. As time passed, she developed a dry cough and began clearing her throat constantly. Karen wondered if the smog were bothering her. One wrong word or a frown set off her temper. Her voice became whiny and demanding, and as she became more negative her constant use of the phrase, “Please come this way with me,” became a snarl.
Original Text ©2022, Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved.
In this scene, little Kitten learns to tie her shoelaces, which is a challenge for many people, but remember that she has to do it with only one hand.
A few weeks later, Miss Kimiko taught her to tie her own shoes. Mama had tried for years to teach her, but she had not had the right techniques and tools to help Kitten master this task.
“Hi Maneki Neko,” Miss Kimiko said to welcome Kitten. Maneki Neko meant lucky cat in Japanese. When Miss Kimiko spoke those words, Karen’s heart always lit up.
“Hi, Miss Kimiko,” Karen replied with her biggest smile. Miss Kimiko allowed Kitten to call her by her first name because there was a warm bond between them. Karen would always treat her with dignity and respect, just as she treated Karen.
“I am so glad to see you, today, Kitten. You are looking chipper, as always!”
“That’s because I’m here to see you, today!” Karen replied. “Am I still going to learn how to tie my shoes?”
“Ah, yes, you sure are. You are going to be the best shoelace tier in the greater L.A. area,” she kidded.
“What are we waiting for?” Karen asked in an imitation of Mr. Hinton’s voice. Miss Kimiko knew Mr. Hinton, and they both laughed.
Quietly settling Karen into a chair at the table, Miss Kimiko put a square of plywood in front of her. It had a leather shoe stapled to it, so that Kitten could practice tying her shoelaces without bending over to the floor.
“You take the two ends of the shoe laces, fold them over and under twice until nice and tight. Then you make one rabbit ear…”
Karen listened and watched carefully. After several tries, she mastered the skill of tying her shoelaces, and so Miss Kimiko taught her many of the basic skills of independent living.
Original Text ©2022, Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved.
In contrast to Mondays, Thursday mornings could not come fast enough for Kitten. She looked forward to her weekly session with Miss Kimiko, the occupational therapist. It was like going to playtime with Tammy. Unlike the gloomy PT room, the occupational therapy room was filled with light that came through its spotless windows. The kitchenette with its chairs and table was spotless. The toys that helped her build dexterity were always clean. The floor was polished. The room had a feeling of quiet peacefulness that contrasted happily with the gloom and sullenness of the physical therapy room.
Miss Kimiko, the occupational therapist, wore her black, shoulder length hair in a stylish flip and outlined her brown eyes with medium black eyeliner that made them look bigger. She stood less than five feet tall and had a medium build. Unlike Mrs. Schmidt, she wore a neatly pressed cotton uniform. Even more unlike Mrs. Schmidt, she always smiled broadly and welcomed Kitten to each of their sessions. At every session, Karen learned something new and felt inspired to learn more.
One week, Miss Kimiko gave Karen two plastic squeeze bottles. They were connected by a flexible tube that went through their lids. The one that Miss Kimiko put into her left hand was full of water and heavy. The one for her right hand was empty and light. When Kitten automatically tried to trade the bottles, so that her strong right hand would hold the heavy one, Miss Kimiko gently stopped her by holding her wrists.
“Okay, Kitten, today we will play with these bottles. This will make your left hand stronger and help you learn to use both hands together. Okay? Does that sound like fun to you? You have a habit of using your right hand for everything, but today we want your left hand do the work. We will make it a strong hand, too. Okay? You can pretend you are squeezing chocolate icing onto a cake. That will make it lots of fun. Okay?”
Karen smiled and agreed. In a flash, she realized what Miss Kimiko meant about relying on her right hand. This was a turning point for her. Even though she knew that her left hand would never become as strong as her right, she was inspired to use it, and it did get stronger.
Original Text ©2022, Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved.