In His Shoes

    "No red," he said quietly.

   

     Kris put down the paper and looked up. "what did you say? Sorry ,I
couldn't hear you ."

     No response.

     Nick kept trying to look at the positive of what was on the plate in 

front of him.Hmmm. The foods are not touching ...good,RED apples,yuck! It's

not that he didn't like the taste of apples. Applesauce and apple pie were

delicious.But to put such an offensive color on his plate with other foods 

could not be tolerated.Crinking his nose.he wondered, Why would Kris serve

me red food? It is infecting my whole plate.Gross.In a gruff voice,he groaned

louder,"No!"

    He looked up at Kris. He liked Kris . He knew that she was trying to 

be nice tjo him as she reminded him, "Nick, it's time to eat." Her voice

was calm and cheerful,which he had learned to associate with the emotion

of happiness.

     How could she not know that red,sliced apples were visually the most

offensive food on the planet? I wish mom was here. She would say, "Kris,

peel off the red skin and cut the apple into small chunks. Problem solved!"

Or,How about green apples?

     Well somehow he was going to have to let Kris in on his "secret of

lift." Seconds passed as he stared at the awful sight in front of him,

trying to figure out how to tell Kris about this problem.

     The challenge facing Nick was that he had autism and

 was practically nonverbal. He rarely spoke, and when he did 

speak, usually his words were not understood or particularly 

relevant to those around him, Sometimes he just echoed what 

other people said.