Chapter 3: Makoto Flashback Chapter 2: Makoto Lee

I arrived at my client's home which was a decently sized, white painted house, that looked to be two stories.  There was a small, well maintained front yard with a variety of colored flowers, setting an inviting atmosphere which was a good sign.  To be honest, one of the toughest aspects of my job was working with the parents, who ranged in quality.  Most parents didn't care what I did as long as I "fixed" their children.  I hated that word "fix."  It didn't really apply to the kids.  They weren't broken in any way...they were just born different.  Rather than being ostracized for it, they should be loved and supported for who they were.  Although, telling some of these parents that was easier said than done.  Plus, it wasn't really in my job description to.  Hopefully, this would be one of the rare cases where the parents actually cared for their child and embraced them with open arms.  

I took off my right shoe and began pulling off the cloth, ankle brace, that was wrapped around my ankle.  My ankle would get stiff from driving which made the shooting pain in my toes worse and made my ankle, itself, sore as well.  I unplugged my heated seat, which helped with the lower back pain, from the cigarette lighter, in addition to taking my phone off of its holder on my dashboard since I was using the GPS app on it to find the location of the house.  I placed the phone in my pocket, turned off the engine of my vehicle, opened the driver's side door and, like an elderly woman, slowly, made my way out of the car, praying that my back wouldn't be aching or my joints wouldn't pop like crazy when I did so.

As soon as I was out of the car, my body didn't feel too bad and I thought to myself, thank fuck, because of how reassuring it was that I wasn't in too much pain.  The day was only just starting, though, so it was most likely going to get worse as the day went along.  I shut the car door behind me and made my way up to the front door of the home, holding the iPad that I took my notes and data on.  I rung the door bell and waited, patiently, for it to be answered.  I could feel myself getting more and more anxious, the longer it took for the door to get answered.  It was strange.  No matter how many clients I had in the past, it never made the first meeting with a new client and their parents any less stressful for me.  

Luckily, before the anxiety could get too unbearable, the front door to the home opened, revealing a well-built and slightly muscular Japanese woman with long, dark black hair tied back in a pony tail.  She had what looked like a tank top and athletic shorts on, making me believe that she may had been some kind of athlete.  Despite her somewhat intimidating appearance, she smiled at me, warmly.  

"You must be Makoto's little helper," the woman said, clearly forgetting my job title.  

Not that I could blame her.  9 times out of 10, I couldn't remember the fucking thing, either.  

"Y-Yes, my name is Mayumi Yuuki," I introduced out of habit.  "Your English is very good, if you don't mind me saying so.  I'm half-Japanese, myself, but I was born and raised in America so my English is actually better than my Japanese."  

"Oh, I would've never guessed that you were part Japanese."

"Yeah, I guess I look more like my American mother," I explained, not even being able to remember what my father looked like.  

"Either way, I'm glad my English is getting better," the woman said, happily.  "Believe me when I say it's taken me a while for me to even get this good.  Oh, I completely forgot to introduce myself.  My name is Minerva Lee, I'm Makoto's mother.  Please, come on in."

After the friendly invitation, I slid my shoes off, outside, and then made my way into the home.  As Minerva closed the door behind us, I stared at my surroundings and there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary.  The hallway was full of typical household decorations, in addition to several family photos, some of Minerva and her husband and a couple of them and their daughter.  Before I was able to get a good look at Makoto in one of the pictures, I heard Minerva gasp so I turned around to make sure that she was alright.

"I almost forgot," Minerva claimed.  "There was a list that my husband wanted to give you...I think it's in the kitchen!  I'll be right back." 

Minerva rushed to the kitchen while I explored the rest of the house.

"My husband, Andy, is usually the one that's with Makoto, most of the time, since he works at home," Minerva mentioned while looking for the list her husband had left for her.

Andy, huh? I thought to myself.  That name definitely sounds American.  That would make sense, considering Makoto's mother seems to be fully Japanese.  

"He's actually the one, who thought our daughter might have...uh...what's it called...Altrui—"

"Autism spectrum disorder," I corrected, in the nicest way I could.

"Oh, yeah, that's it.  So, he got her tested and it turns out she does have it...although...the doctor did mention that she was...higher functioning.  I don't really know if that's a good thing, though, since I wasn't the one who took her to get tested, unfortunately."

"It actually is a good thing," I said.  "For ASD, there's usually a spectrum that the kiddos fall on.  High functioning, typically, means that the kiddo has less severe symptoms and are actually incredibly intelligent.  Although, I'm not a huge fan of the term since I, personally, don't think autism is so black and white."

"Oh, that's so good to hear.  Andy and I both really worry about her.  She's really well behaved and doesn't really have tantrums but can have little incidents where she gets overwhelmed.  Makoto is a big crier.  Andy has seen most of the crying but even I've seen it on occasion.  Even when she's not in trouble, it seems like the smallest thing will cause her to cry.  Oh, I found the list!" 

Minerva closed the drawer that she found the note in and rushed over to me, handing me the list.  

"It just has a couple of things that Andy has noticed about Makoto that he thought would help you a little.  He'll be back in a couple of hours, actually.  He just had some errands to run, this morning."

That's a rarity.  I don't know if I've ever had a parent give me a list of things they notice.  That makes my job a little easier.

"That was...so helpful of your husband to do," I praised. 

I glanced over the note at some of the things the husband had written.  

Let's see.  It seems Makoto does cry a lot and usually it's caused by being overwhelmed, a change in her regular schedule, forced interactions, someone talking down to her, being away from her parents for too long. The list went on and on.  Makoto has a tendency to like to eat and chew on things...she chews on her mother's hair when she holds her, chews on her mouth when she gets distressed, and will eat random things on the ground when she's outside.  That's common.  The lip biting thing is most likely a stimulatory response to stress.  

There were a couple of other things on the list but, for the time being, I skipped to the section of the note that was labeled, "goals."  

Makoto is starting Kindergarten in a couple of months.  We are now aware that we should have had her attend pre-school but Makoto has never seemed to struggle with learning and is actually quite observant and smart.  She can count, match similar things together and can even spell and write really well.  The problems that are a bit concerning is that she refuses to sit in chairs and loves the floor, her motor skills are definitely lacking, she's off balanced a lot because she's a toe walker and she refuses to talk to anyone other than us.  There's a couple of other small things but we just thought that hiring a behavioral interventionist to work on these issues might prepare her for Kindergarten.  I just want her to be as ready as possible, before she has to start.   

"My husband can be very thorough," Minerva said, chuckling, slightly.  "Trust me, I don't think he's trying to tell you how to do your job.  He's just really worried about Makoto attending school.  She does well with us and is definitely smart but school is just...a different environment.  We're worried about how she'll fit in.  Oh, but we did get her into a really good special education program!"  

"That'll be really helpful for her," I said.  "I definitely think having Makoto in a special education program for the first couple of years of her schooling would be a good idea.  Although, I doubt she'll need to be enrolled in it for too long.  I imagine she may be able to be with the other students in the normal classroom setting in a couple of years."

"Really, you think so?" asked Minerva.

"I do.  From what I'm reading in these notes, it doesn't seem like Makoto has a learning disability or anything that will make learning harder for her.  I mean, the fact that she can count and match similar objects together at her age is already impressive.  Plus, she can write and draw as well."

"Yeah, Andy always tells me that she's extremely talented for her age.  She just gets tired so easily.  You'll see what I mean when we head upstairs.  I think we've kept her waiting long enough.  Wanna go and meet her?"

I nodded my head, yes, and followed Minerva up the stairs to the second floor of the house, where it seemed like both Makoto's and her parent's rooms were.  

"It's convenient that both of your rooms are so close together," I observed and Minerva nodded her head in agreement.

"Absolutely, especially because sometimes she likes to sleep in our room when she's scared or can't sleep."

"If you don't mind me asking, how often does that happen?"

Minerva thought for a moment as we approached the door to Makoto's room.  

"Now that you mention it, it does seem to happen a lot," Minerva admitted.  "The poor thing has a lot of bad dreams, especially for a girl her age.  A part of me wonders what kind of nightmares she could be having but she says she can't remember any of them.  I guess that's kind of strange as well."

Hm, I guess that isn't too weird, I told myself.  Kids can have nightmares too.  They aren't the same as the kind that adults have but they definitely still happen.  I'm not sure if the autism would make that worse or not...I haven't heard or read anything that would verify that.  Weird.

Minerva, lightly, knocked on the door, turned the door knob, and opened the door leading to Makoto's room.  The room was decently sized, full of things I would expect in a kid's bedroom such as a twin-sized, red mattress, a book shelf with what looked like some easier to read comic books, a tv that wasn't turned on, a boombox that could play CDs and a small, toy table that had a pencil and a piece of printer paper on it.  It was hard to see from how far I was but it looked like the paper had been divided into eight panels, almost like a comic book.  My eyes then shifted to a small girl that was lying on the carpet, next to the toy table.  She had brown, curly hair that was shoulder length, big eyes that matched the color of her hair, relatively pale skin and had a shirt with some kind of superhero on it that I didn't recognize and tiny sweatpants for her legs.  

"She seems to be really into superheroes," I noted.

"Her father is a huge superhero fan and has collected tons of comic books over the years so some of the first things he practiced reading with her were some of his more kid-friendly comic books.  According to him, she can't really read them too well, yet, but she loves looking at the pictures."  

Makoto was also, clutching what looked like a stuffed bunny with a cape on it.  

"Oh, that's super bunny," Minerva pointed out.  "Her father bought her that about a year ago and, ever since, it's been her favorite.  She can't sleep without it."  

Makoto, finally, realized that we were in her room and stared at us both for a second, tiredly.  The first thing that I noticed was that it seemed like Makoto didn't have any physical abnormalities.  Honestly, she looked like a completely normal five-year-old girl, especially in the face.

"Minniema," Makoto said, softly, looking at her mother.

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Minerva smiled and I stared at her in confusion.

"Her speech is a little delayed as you can probably tell but we do have a speech pathologist that sees her once a week as well to help with this.  Andy always calls me Mine and, at the same time, we were trying to teach her mama so she kind of combined the words to create 'Minniema.'  She does that quite often.  In fact, she calls her father, 'Andpa.'"

"W-Well, I'll be curious to see what name she decides on for me," I joked, nervously.  

Mayumi would be way too hard for this girl to pronounce.  How should I introduce myself, then?

While I, internally, debated this, Minerva continued introducing me to her daughter, "Makoto, this is the helper daddy and I were talking to you about.  Can you say hi to her?"

Instead of verbally greeting me, Makoto waved at me with her right hand and I replicated the action.

"She does seem pretty tired," I noted.

"She was doing some drawing and writing at her table, earlier, but after a bit, she began getting really tired and kind of just started lying there.  She does that quite often.  Kind of just lying there, tired, not doing anything, especially after she does a big activity."

"It makes sense.  It's like that for most autistic kiddos.  I remember reading something not too long ago...don't quote me on this, but I believe that it takes autistic kiddos 3X as much mental energy to do the same task that a normal kiddo can do.  So, even something as simple as doing a math worksheet, reading a book, going shopping...or anything similar could probably cause her to need a rest."

After my explanation, I made my way over to her and plopped myself down, right next to her.  Using all of her strength, Makoto forced herself to sit up and studied me for a second with her large eyes that were full of curiosity. 

"Hi there, Makoto, my name is...uh...you can call me Ms. Yuuki, if you'd like?" I greeted, smiling.  

The girl squinted at me for a moment which was most likely a means of stimming, rather than her not being able to see me.  I could also, see that the girl was biting the right side of her lip, indicating that she was stressed about meeting a new person.  

"M...M...Miss...Yucky," Makoto responded, tilting her head. 

Fucking figures as much, I thought to myself after hearing my newest nickname.

Minerva attempted to cover up her laughter and complimented her daughter, saying, "That wasn't too bad of an attempt, Makoto.  You were really close.  It's Yuuki, though...Yuuuuuuuki."

Minerva made sure to emphasize the letter "u" so Makoto would understand.  

"Y...Y...Yuuuuuuuuucky," incorrectly, mimicked Makoto.

"I-It's a work in progress," I said, just accepting the nickname.  

"Well, I suppose I'll let the two of you get more familiar," claimed Minerva.  "I'll just be downstairs doing some cleaning until Andy gets home.  If you need anything, feel free to let me know."  

"Of course, thank you so much for all of your help," I responded, sincerely.  "I think I've got it from here...hopefully."

Minerva left the room and shut the door behind her, leaving it cracked just a bit.  Since her mother was gone, it was just Makoto and I now and so began the awkwardness of the first day of session.  First days were always rough for me because I sucked dick at talking to people.  Personally, I'd rather have Gonorrhea, than be forced to engage in a conversation with a stranger but it was part of my job so I didn't really have much of a choice.  Plus, for some reason, I was better at talking to these kids than I was with adults.

"S-So, Makoto, do you want to show me what you were working on at your table over there?" I asked, causing Makoto to crane her neck and stare at the piece of paper she had been working on. 

She shook her head, no, rapidly.

Right, she probably doesn't trust me enough to show me something she's worked on.  Since this is the first session, I don't really have to worry too much about running a ton of programs.  Instead, I need to focus on building rapport with Makoto and try to figure out a reward system for her.  Her reward system could be working at her table...or watching cartoons on the tv...or...

While I was lost in my thoughts, Makoto was staring, intently, at my iPad.

Oh, right.  I forgot about my iPad.  There are some games on it but, usually, the older kiddos are more interested in the iPad.  

"Oh, do you want to play a game on here?" I asked and Makoto shook her head, yes.

I swiped my finger across the screen of the iPad and navigated my home screen while Makoto watched, seeing if she would find a game that would catch her attention.  Perhaps, one of the easier games that I usually had my younger...

Makoto made an "Oh" noise and, immediately, pointed at a Match 3 Japanese Role-Playing Game, excitedly. 

"Oh...uh...this...is...uh...kind of a harder game," I said.

The game she was pointing at was actually a game that I downloaded for myself and that I played sometimes at my house when I was bedridden or bored.  The game wasn't necessarily inappropriate by any means and just featured fighting monsters by matching 3 objects in a row to do damage.  I did recall that the father mentioned something about Makoto being good at matching similar objects together.  

"Are you sure you want to try this one?" I asked, hoping Makoto would change her mind.  

Makoto shook her head, firmly, yes.  

I clicked on the game and scratched the back of my neck, nervously, while the game loaded.  While Makoto watched in anticipation, I did a couple of things, before loading up a battle with an easier enemy that I had already beaten. 

"O-Okay, so to deal damage, you have to match these colorful orbs together—"

Makoto scooted right next to me and motioned that she wanted the iPad without any further explanation so I handed it to her, expecting her to have a tough time with it.  She stared at the screen that consisted of several different colored orbs in random order and placed her hand by her mouth, thinking.  She incorrectly slid a couple of the orbs and frowned for a moment, leading me to believe that I was right and the game was going to be too difficult for her.  Although, after only a couple of times getting it wrong, Makoto was, finally, able to slide an orb that caused 3 of the same color to match which dealt damage to the ogre monster that was on the screen.  Makoto made a humming sound and began opening and closing her fists in excitement at getting it right, both of which were stimulatory responses.

"Wow, good job, Makoto," I praised in shock.  "You actually got a match."

Oh, that's right, this would be a good time to work on the sharing program, I reminded myself.  Then again, I'm not sure if Makoto even has a tough time sharing.   We'll have to see.  

"Hey, Makoto, would you mind if I had a turn, please?" I asked, politely, and, without hesitation, she handed me back the iPad so I could make a move.

The girl moved her head even closer to me so she could still get a glimpse of what was going on in the game.

"Thank you so much for sharing," I returned as I quickly made my turn, matching three blue orbs together, dealing more damage to the ogre.  

Makoto made her humming sound, again, and opened and closed one of her fists while I handed her back the iPad so that she could have another turn.  As Makoto and I continued to take turns playing on the iPad, I learned that despite her disability, she was incredibly smart.

This is why I love working with these kids, I thought to myself.  Their lives are so tough.  They've been dealt such shitty hands in life and, yet, they still keep pushing forward, every day.  Just like I need to wake up every morning and embrace my own shitty life and not let it prevent me from doing the things that I enjoy.  I suppose, in that way, these kids and I aren't all that different.

 

Author's Note: Hello, thank you so much for reading this chapter!  Not only do we get to see a different side of Mayumi in this chapter but we also, get our introduction to Makoto, a small girl with autism, who will have not just an effect on Ms. Yuuki but on the series as a whole.  I'm excited to explore Mayumi and Makoto's dynamic as the series goes on.  Thanks again for reading!  

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