Swimming Over The Coo-Coo’s Nest

Last Friday I watched my friend, Michelle Carr, put on her cat hat and do her kitty routine on my living room floor. She had found a ball of string.

Michelle is a consummate thespian, she acting almost every minute of the day. If she does not have us in stitches, she has not had a good day.

A week earlier we watched Peter ‘Sellers in The Return of the Pink Panther’ and were roaring with laughter as we did impressions of Inspector Clouseau saying the word “Meenky”.

About 5:00 P.M. I told Michelle about First Friday Art Walk and the No Shame Theatre.

“Let’s go. Let’s put together a routine!”

We got there exactly at 7:30 and signed up. Seven acts later, we went before an audience of about seventy people.

“Help me not be nervous John.” Michelle asked. We had been actors for only 150 minutes.

“We are going to be just fine.” I reassured my friend, and rubbed her back. Kitty and the Captain – hit the stage!

Michelle has been my friend for over a year. She is twenty years of age, and autistic. I met her through my homeless Vet friend, Hollis Williams, who as of three days ago, is no longer homeless. I and other have worked hard to put an end to this Veterans ten years of having nowhere to hang his hat. For over six months we gathered at my house for Movie Night and spaghetti dinner. Michelle would bring her Barbie and Tinkerbell movies that never failed to give her chills, she rapidly clapping her hands during the scenes that reassured us “All’s well, that ends well.”

After the thunderous applause, we walked down Broadway to the New Zone art gallery where I introduced Michelle as my ‘Hand Model’. Kitty took off her glove to expose her beautiful hand that I have been rendering for a show I have in mind.

Going back to the theater, Michelle turned to me and said;

“We did it, John. We took a big risk, and now we are winners!”

I love my dear courageous friend who says I am like a grandfather. Since I have known her she has gotten a job at Goodwill, and purchases kitty food and dish soap with her wages. I am so proud of her.

Jon Presco

Copyright 2012

thes·pi·an  (thsp-n)
adj.
1. Of or relating to drama; dramatic: thespian talents.
2. Thespian Of or relating to Thespis.
n.
An actor or actress.

Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. The diagnostic criteria require that symptoms become apparent before a child is three years old.[2] Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize; how this occurs is not well understood.[3]