May 25: Study It, Heated Exchange, Close to the Edge

Santiago studies baseball . . . 

"I'll be back when I have the sardines. I'll keep yours and mine together on ice and we can share them in the morning. When I come back you can tell me about the baseball."

"The Yankees cannot lose."

"But I fear the Indians of Cleveland."

"Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

"I fear both the Tigers of Detroit and the Indians of Cleveland."

"Be careful or you will fear even the Reds of Cincinnati and the White Sox of Chicago."

"You study it and tell me when I come back."

Santiago and the boy understand each other.  The boy knows that Santiago is a proud old man.  Santiago knows the boy respects and loves him deeply.  Baseball and fishing are their common language.

I have been avoiding the subject of my son's situation at school recently.  Because it's exhausting.  My son walks into that building every morning feeling like nobody is on his side.  He's said this to me.  He has no Santiago to turn to during the day.

It's a difficult thing as a parent to witness.  My son is on guard all day long.  He doesn't want to do or say anything that will get him in trouble.  That may sound like an easy thing to do.  For a child with ADHD and impulse-control issues, it's something of which he has to remind himself every second he's in the school building.

After a very heated exchange with a school official this morning, I understand, a little, of what my son is facing.  I won't get into details, but it was fairly evident, at the end of the conversation, that I was by myself in trying to keep my son safe and out of detention or suspension.

I don't think my son feels he has one person on his side at the school.  No Santiago to turn to, if you will.  Nobody who speaks his baseball language.  That's got to feel pretty lonely.  Like he's floating in a boat by himself in the middle of the sea.

Now, there are some of you reading this post who may think I'm an over-protective father.  That I'm not acknowledging by son's part in everything that's happened.  As I've said in previous posts, I know my son is not an angel.  Nobody is.  However, he's been pushed pretty close to the edge for over five months by a group of his classmates.  And now I will do anything to help him make it to the end of this school year without losing anything else.  Any parent would do the same.

Saint Marty wants his son to know that he is not alone.