This is Roald Tweet in Rock Island.
"Abracadabra," and "Open, Sesame," can't possibly match the three magic words which end this Rock Island story.
The main character is Hannah, a young woman currently doing graduate work in speech therapy. Without those magic words, she might well be flipping burgers instead.
Hannah had decided on a career in speech therapy after volunteering at a summer camp for disadvantaged children. Her idealism and her vision had carried her through three years of college and a dozen courses in speech therapy.
Then came her senior year, and a clinical experience designed to let her practice the skills she had learned from books. Her assignment was to work twice a week with a young autistic boy—let's call him Kenny. Like many autistic children, Kenny was beautiful, a bright face ringed with a halo of golden hair.
Hannah's goals were to get her client to socialize, to interact with her, to speak. But there was never any response. The sessions consisted of Hannah talking and Hannah playing, sitting on the floor with unmoving Kenny. "Hannah is playing with the car. The car is driving to see Kenny. Kenny is playing with the car." No response, ever. Each week, Kenny was pushed into the room by his mother, and he left quickly when she arrived to pick him up.
Ten weeks with no progress. Hannah began to ask herself if she could face a career with so few results. By the last session of her clinical, she had decided "no." The frustration of being unable to help someone like Kenny she cared so much about drained her idealism. There were other jobs she could do, jobs where she could do some good.
These were Hannah's thoughts at the last session. Kenny came with his mother, watched Hannah drive the car around the floor, and bounced back down the steps toward his mother at the end, more eager than ever.
The door closed, and Hannah sat alone, Hannah the failure. Then the door reopened just wide enough and long enough for a halo of ringlets to poke through, and say "Goodbye, Hannah Banana."
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.
