Chapter 17 - MARCUS LEARNS TO WAIT
Marcus’s hardest lesson involved waiting.
Not making Elsie wait.
Him.
When she covered her ears, he wanted to fix it.
When she cried, he wanted immediate calm.
When she refused new food, he wanted progress.
Her therapists kept teaching him:
Wait.
Observe.
Offer.
Do not turn every difficulty into a test.
One afternoon Elsie spent twenty minutes deciding whether to enter a noisy aquarium exhibit.
Marcus stood beside her.
Old Marcus would have said:
Come on.
Be brave.
Grandma would have said:
Stop indulging her.
New Marcus asked:
“Want headphones?”
She nodded.
Put them on.
Entered.
Five minutes later she removed them herself.
Marcus cried in the bathroom afterward.
He told me:
“I thought support stopped her from growing.”
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I answered:
“Sometimes support is how people get close enough to growth.”
