Oh Boy

Sam is laying siege to the office, refusing to leave. If I speak he tells me to shut my big mouth. A couple of centre users have tried to come in to talk to me but he’s shouted at them too. When Liam and I tell him that he can’t come in here and behave like this, he says “Yes, I can” and he has a point, because he is. It’s impossible to reason with him so Liam and I leave him in the office to get on with it.

“He’s been like this since he started at his new school,” Liam says. “It’s what all the kids are like there, walking around telling the teachers to fuck off.”

“Is it a special school or mainstream?”

“Special, but most of them don’t have severe learning difficulties like he has. It’s more behavioural problems, emotional issues, messed up kids, d’you know what I mean?”

“So he’s just copying the way they behave?”

“Right. He wants to fit in. He’s turning into a teenager.”

“That’s going to be a bad combination isn’t it? Learning difficulties and teenage hormones.”

“Tell me about it. We spent four hours in Asda at the weekend. We had our dinner in the lift. When they were closing up, he refused to leave. I had to physically remove him. I’ve never had to do that before. Five hours we were on the bus the other day. Five hours. Going from one side of town to the other, back and forth. Seriously, I want to kill him right now.”

Liam and I stand in the foyer looking through the office window at Sam, all innocence, spinning in my swivel chair, sitting at my desk.

“Well,” I say, “he’s running the place now.”

I can only imagine this is going to get worse. Sam’s face is covered in spots. Adolescence is on its way. He’s stronger now too, much stronger, and he knows it. The high fives we’ve always shared now come with a vicious sting and a knowing smirk. You can see how much he’s relishing his new found strength.

Still, it could be worse. As difficult as he might get, there’s only one of him. One of the community centres on the outskirts of town has whole groups of marauding teenagers to deal with. It’s like Lord of the Flies out there. Last weekend they completely overran the place, terrorising the groups inside, setting fire to rolls of toilet paper, climbing on the roof and throwing tiles at passers-by. The volunteer in the office was so overwhelmed they ended up running out of the building, completely abandoning the place. No one’s seen them since.

Liam has to call in for backup to get Sam out of the centre. His partner Jen arrives and between them they eventually get Sam out of the centre and take him home. A week later Liam and Sam return.

“We came in because Sam wanted to apologise to you for his behaviour last week,” Liam tells me. Sam looks sheepish, doesn’t say a word. “What did you want to say to Paul, geez?”

“S-sorry Paul, I wasn’t being very m-mature.”

His apology is so scripted that I want to laugh but I don’t want to undo all the hard work that has gone in to getting him here.

“Apology accepted,” I tell him. “But it can’t happen again, Ok?”

“Ok,” he echoes.

“High five?” I offer my hand up and Sam slaps it back as hard as he can, turning his face away to hide a malevolent grin. I look to Liam, who shrugs.

“What can you do?” he says.