The red bracelet

- "Hurray! Today we're going to my favourite amusement park!", a little boy shouts overjoyed when his mum announced the big news. He's autistic and he just adores going to that park because to him it's his fantasy world come true. All of his friends from television will be there, like Samson the dog, dwarf Plop and Maya the bumble bee. It's summer and for a change the weather's very nice, which only adds to the boy's excitement. He's filled with impatience and anticipation as they drive all the way to the park. Of course, summertime and nice weather also mean that the park is very crowded. The boy's a bit anxious about that, but fortunately the park management has a special arrangement for children like him: the red bracelet. Children with a disability, either mental or physical, are entiteld to wearing this bracelet which offers them a priority entrance at the various attractions. No horrible queues which could possibly drive him mad and cause a crisis. 

Unfortunately, however, not everyone is as understanding towards children with a handicap. Some heartless people watch the priority entry with vicious jealousy.

- "Hey, where can you buy these red bracelets? I want one for my kids as well!", a vile woman shouts hysterically at the little autistic boy. But to the woman's surprise, the boy remains as cool as a cucumber and calmy replies:

- "Do you want my bracelet? Well, you can have it. But you'll have to take my autism with it!"

The mad woman is stunned and doesn't know what to say anymore. And so is everyone else who's watching the scene. The boy then enters the attraction and tries to forget what just happened. In vain, obviously. It keeps nagging in his head and he so wishes that his autism would go away. As if it had only been a bad dream. The rest of his day is ruined and he only wants to return home and cry.

It's an ordinary day out of the life of little Thomas, and I guess from personal experience out of the life of every autistic person or people with other disabilities. My brother, for example, has always been a keen boyscout and once they went to the city of Antwerp with one of them sitting in a wheelchair, just for laughs in order to spot the people's reactions. Although not a lot of verbal reactions were encountered, the faces of these people said more than a thousand words. Ranging from pity to annoyment because the wheelchair was in their way. There's still a long way to go as far as education is concerned...