“Can I come over?” Moishy asked me at recess.
“Our house is full of boxes…”. How long could I use this excuse? – I thought to myself.
Two weeks ago, we moved. The boys invited me to their house. But some others asked to come to my house – and that was a problem.
Why? Because I didn’t know how to tell them about Yossie. I was afraid they’d be frightened by him and they wouldn’t want to be my friends.
My brother Yossie is a boy with special needs. He’s two years older than I am, but he behaves like a little boy.
In my last school,it was no problem at all, because all of my friends always knew Yossie. When I got to the new class, I didn’t know what to do.
Another week passed and the excuse of “boxes all over the house” wasn’t appropriate anymore. When Moishy asked again, I answered grudgingly, “Y-yes. But it could be we’ll need to play outside.”
Ima suggested that we play on the porch and said, “You can lock the door so Yossie shouldn’t bother you.
I locked the door, but it didn’t help. Yossie discovered we were there and started banging on the door.
Moishy was startled. “What’s that? I had no choice. I told him. All that time, Yossie kept knocking.
Where’s Ima — I wondered to myself.? She came after many long minutes. “I had an urgent phone call,” she apologized.
Finally the banging on the door stopped and I suggested we continue playing, but Moishy was deep in thought. “You know what I’m thinking?” he said to me, with a glint in his eyes. “I think you can send Yossie to Ezer Mizion. Our neighbors also have a child with special needs. A few times a week she travels straight from her school to Ezer Mizion.
“MY older sister volunteers there and she always says how the children love it. Once I heard our neighbor saying that Ezer Mizion really saves them because when Ruti is home, they need to watch her every second …”
These words were very familiar to me! Yes, we all love our Yossie. But we need the time when Yossie can be somewhere else. A place where they will keep him occupied so that we can invite friends and so Ima will be a little more available to us and so Abba can listen calmly to what went on in class, and maybe even review with us what we learned, without Yossie interrupting every second.
I went with Moishy to Ima and told her about Ezer Mizion. “You’re a tzaddik,” she said to Moishy and asked for his mother’s phone number. After that, everything moved quickly. Ima spoke to the one in charge and registered Yossie. The day Yossie started participating in Ezer Mizion was a festive day for all of us. We were happy for him and happy for us.
At six we went down to wait for the Ezer Mizion volunteer driver who would bring Yossie home.
“Yossie!” we called out to him excitedly. We had no doubt that he’d liked it there. He was so happy and relaxed, like a boy who just had a wonderful time. The volunteer driver waved goodbye to him and Yossie happily waved back.
