Shelter the Sea by Heidi Cullinan

Author:Heidi Cullinan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: coming of age, gay, depression, hope, queer, optimism, autism, anxiety, new adult, hurt comfort
Publisher: Heidi Cullinan

CHAPTER TWELVE

Jeremey

Living with Mai was a whole new life for me.

We still worked on training all the time, but from the first day we were together, she changed everything. It sounds so strange, but the simplest, most important thing was I was never alone anymore. I hadn’t thought about how much peace of mind she would give me until she was a part of my daily routine, and in fact it wasn’t until the trainer came to visit me for the two-week checkup that I realized how much was different with her around.

So much of having a service dog was mindset. I was braver, even without her fully trained. I could face stores on busy days and navigate congested downtown festivals full of well-meaning people who overwhelmed me. Most of the time Mai didn’t have to do anything at all. Simply being present was enough for both me and the other people around us. She made other people aware something was going on, alerted them they should behave differently around us, which was what I’d wanted all along.

Sometimes, though, people ignored her service dog vest and decided they should come over and introduce themselves to her, which always got awkward. Kids were pretty easy because Mai didn’t hesitate to knock them over if they stayed too close during the around command, and whatever parent or guardian was with them ushered them quickly away. Adults who wanted to approach Mai while she was working, however, were a more complicated problem. They never took her hints when she blocked them or used around to make space for me. Adults usually began to scold me if I failed to engage with them or didn’t let them engage with her, at which point I would have an anxiety attack and Mai would have to remove me from the scene.

Things were different, however, in April when the four of us went to the art festival and a rude person approached Mai, and the others were with me.

It was a street festival, most of Main Street closed off so we could wander between the booths, with a few food trucks at each end. A couple of the restaurants had tables stationed here and there as well, the fancy Thai restaurant and the co-op, as well as two of the downtown pizza places. What I wanted was hot chocolate from the Café Diem stand, so the four of us were trying to weave our way through the crush of people.

David led us because he was convinced people got out of the way for wheelchairs once they noticed him, and he always made sure they noticed him when he wanted to get through. It was working, mostly, but the crowd was thick and full of people making too much noise. I was starting to change my mind about the hot chocolate. I couldn’t imagine it’d be worth all this trouble. Except I was chilly, and I wanted something sweet and warm to hold on to while we walked around.

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