Saving Danny (NF8) by Cathy Glass

Author:Cathy Glass
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780008130497
Publisher: Harper Element
Published: 2015-05-12T00:00:00+00:00

When I arrived home Paula, Lucy and Adrian were still in their dressing gowns but at the table, tucking into a cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans and hash browns, which they proudly told me they’d cooked together. I was impressed – even more so when Adrian took a plate from the oven for me. ‘Thank you very much,’ I said, sounding like Danny, and I joined them at the table. I love a cooked breakfast at the weekend when we have time to enjoy it, and it’s especially nice when it’s cooked for you!

With Danny at his parents’ all day it allowed me the opportunity to give Adrian, Lucy and Paula my full attention. Although we all thought the world of Danny, he was hard work and took up most of my time. We had a leisurely breakfast and then the kids finished their homework while I cleared away. In the afternoon, as they were in the mood for cooking, we baked some cupcakes and also made an apple crumble for my parents’ visit the following day. As Danny wouldn’t be home while it was light, we let George out in the garden for about half an hour and were very vigilant. Paula, Lucy and Adrian had great fun, but then had to spend a long time enticing George back into his hutch with a carrot and then some cabbage leaves.

‘Why doesn’t he do what we want?’ Paula moaned. ‘He does what Danny wants straight away.’

‘They have a special bond,’ I said. ‘They’re very close.’

‘Danny seems to like George more than he does us,’ Lucy commented, much as Reva had done.

‘I think Danny finds it easier being with his pet, because he doesn’t make any demands of him,’ I said. ‘I’m hoping the educational psychologist will be able to help Danny express himself and lose some of his distrust of adults.’

‘Why doesn’t he trust us?’ Paula asked. ‘We haven’t done anything to him.’

‘No, but we’re part of a world Danny doesn’t understand and it scares him. He’s the same with his parents and the other children at school.’ Although I’d talked to my children about Danny’s difficulties, and we’d fostered other children before who’d been on the autistic spectrum, it was still hard for them to fully appreciate how differently Danny perceived the world around us, as indeed it was for his parents and me. While Danny hadn’t been diagnosed with autism (we were waiting for the educational psychologist’s assessment), he displayed many of the traits of autism.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.