“A bit. Simple requests are her strength in terms of communication. She can say ‘I want’ and then list the item or even describe it somewhat. For example, ‘I want red sweater cat’ might mean I want the red sweater that has the black cat on it. Eye contact is a problem though. She doesn’t like to look at people.”
Bettina sipped her tea and then reached out for my hand, which startled me and continued. “You’ll get used to her, get a feel for what she likes. I can tell you will be great with her.”
Smiling, I said, “Thanks for the vote of confidence. What should I do with her for starters today?”
“Why don’t you just sit in her room with her for a while. Let her get used to your being there. Then, in about an hour, I can show you what her dinner routine is like.”
“Sounds good.”
I followed Bettina into Callie’s room and she quickly backed out and shut the door. I think she was intentionally separating herself so that I didn’t feel pressure from her watching me. I appreciated it because I was extremely intimidated by this situation, which left me feeling clueless.
I sat on the bed next to Callie, on a pretty Pottery Barn floral quilt. She continued to look at You Tube, but this time she was focused on a video that played television station identification music backwards. It looked to be vintage music from the cable station Nickelodeon. She would keep rewinding it to the same point in the middle playing the same three-second chime over and over again. I was fascinated that she actually found this entertaining and that she never once acknowledged that I was sitting next to her. She could have cared less that I was there, if she even realized it.
I decided to just sit next to her for a while and not say anything. Maybe she would eventually look at me or ask me for something. I looked around her room at the various pictures hanging on the wall, some butterflies, some drawings of stick people in crayon, some marker scribbled right on the wall.
There was one cluster of photos that particularly stunned me.
There on a bulletin board above her headboard was a collage of the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Yes, the Silver Fox. Apparently, Callie had the hots for him or something. It was such a strange contrast to the Dora the Explorer dolls and grade school board books that lay strewn on the floor. There were pictures of Anderson Cooper posing with other celebrities, headshots of him and an autographed picture.
I then decided to try something. I suddenly grabbed the iPad from Callie. She finally looked at me…like I was pointing a gun at her.
I quickly typed into the You Tube search bar: Anderson Cooper. Hundreds of search results displayed on the screen and I selected one that said Anderson Cooper Cracks Up During Newscast.
I pressed play.
Callie spotted Anderson right away and yanked the iPad from my hands.
Upon the first sight of Anderson losing control and laughing hysterically in the clip, Callie started jumping up and down on the bed frantically, with a look of utter excitement. She began to smile and then…a volcanic eruption of laughter came out of her.
I stopped the video, barely containing my own laughter at her response. And she looked at me.
“Callie, what do you want?” I asked holding the device.
“Anderson,” she said looking at the iPad.
“Ask better,” I said.
“I want Anderson,” she replied, her eyes still glued to the screen.
“Good!” I said and played the video again.
Each time the video played, Callie’s reaction was bigger than the last. And each time, I asked more of her before playing it again.
“Callie, what do you want?” I asked.
“I want Anderson,” she said.
I pointed to the still of the video. “Callie, this is Anderson Cooper. What do you want?” I asked.
“I want Anderson Cooper,” she said.
I played the video again and paused it mid-way. Callie, frantically curled her fingers and rocked back and forth, obviously wanting the video to continue. I had paused the image on Anderson’s smiling face.
“Callie, what is Anderson doing?” I asked.
“Smiling,” she said.
“Who is smiling?” I asked.