Quentin: Memorial For A Moron …[ Long; Fiction; …………? Poem by Bri Edwards

The banker and his wife rejoiced. Their son was born.
As happened at first with boys, blue was the color most often worn …..
by their dear son, Quentin. They doted on him so,
planning for his future. To which college would he go?

Which instrument would he learn to play? Violin perhaps?
Would he be a baseball pitcher, or a swimmer swimming many laps?
Would he ‘marry well', and produce (for them) grandkids?
Never did they think he'd fail at life, ending up 'on the skids'!

He was a happy, healthy boy, full of energy, and most-outgoing.
Little did they know at first, a 'flaw' in Quentin was not showing.
Psychologists in ‘those days' would tell them: 'Quentin is a moron child.
His 'mental age' may not exceed ten. He has retardation; it's ‘mild'.'

‘Mild retardation'? ! They'd had ‘signs', but the shock was great.
Was there nothing doctors could do to help before ‘too late'?
'I'm sorry', said their doctor. 'SOME children are idiots. It could be WORSE.
Quentin won't go to college or be ‘a leader', but don't think of it as a curse.'

His mom and dad, stunned, still thanked the doctor; they saved tears for later.
They read what they found about ‘morons'. They prayed Quentin would be greater …..
than a man with ‘a mental age between seven and twelve'.
They tried to prepare themselves and Quentin to cautiously delve ….
into the future.

{Quentin was ten years old.}

For two more years he attended the same classes as his best friends.
Then he was put in the 'un-graded class', for students who did not blend ….
….well with those whose mental ages and physical ages kept pace …..
with most other students and most of the world's human race.

{Those in Quentin's class were taught by a teacher for students, 'Special'.}

They were ‘Special-Ed' kids, not expected, at math or science, to excel,
or even reach an ‘average' ability. [BUT some things they did very well]
Their ‘academic' lessons were taught by a ‘Special-Ed' teacher with a lot of heart,
but they were mixed with the ‘normal' students for gym and art.

Kids from twelve to fifteen, with ‘special' needs, were in one class;
younger ones were in a second class. There was no pressure for them to ‘pass'.
The school had no ‘Special-Ed' for those sixteen and over. For families who could afford …..
it, there were, in some areas, 'special schools' providing ‘room and board'.
Quentin was the tallest student in his school, five feet-eight inches at ten!
By age fourteen he was 6' 3'. He'd be leaving school. What would happen then?
He played baseball [Little League] and at ‘right field' he was good.
He'd grown up with neighbor friends, but they ‘drifted apart', as you'd expect they would.

He'd sung in the family's church youth choir, and been a Scout for a while.
But his mental age made it more difficult to relate with friends; it became a trial …….
for both Quentin and his ‘normal' peers. BUT he (almost) always had a smile.
As he neared his 16th birthday, for ‘working papers' he did file.

He lived at home for the next ten years. His siblings went to college.
He seemed to understand his limitations, rarely seeking ‘advanced knowledge'.
He still enjoyed kids TV shows and going to the zoo which was a block from home.
His parents taught him what he needed to know. In the neighborhood he was free to roam.

Sometimes he mowed lawns or shoveled snow. At 20 he was 6 feet 7.
He faithfully attended church with Mom and Dad, where he was ….reminded of Heaven.
He never showed much of the ‘normal' interest ‘boys' have for ‘girls'. NO.
Most people who ‘knew' were kind to him, but he'd get mad if called a 'retard' OR 'slow'.

A new grocery store was built in the neighborhood. He became a grocery bagger.
He took great pride in his job; he even walked, there, with a swagger.
It was a part time job, but that was all he needed. In summer he rode his bike,
but sometimes, in winter, he'd put on rubber boots, and to his bagger job he'd hike.

He never had a girlfriend; Quentin never learned to drive a car.
Every summer he and is parents vacationed, but they never did go far.
He liked to read Sunday comics, and comic books; Superman was a favorite.
He seemed to love his grocery bagger job; it seemed he'd never quit.

Quentin loved watching animals at the zoo, especially the big cats.
He didn't care for the prairie dog colony; he said they looked like rats.
His parents gave him a zoo membership; he went several times a week.
He loved the brightly-colored macaw with its long tail and thick, curved beak.

One day as he approached the outdoor enclosure of the lions, Quentin froze.
A boy of twelve was lying still behind the cage bars, dressed in threadbare clothes.
Quentin had once wished to get through the cage bars, yet knew he should not do it.
Somehow a boy had gone where Quentin had fantasized being. The boy had beaten him to it.


(written March 2017; more to be typed)