Logan's Jacket

The keys jingled in the ignition as Andy turned into the school parking lot. Hands shaking, he parked the car under the solar panels that provided shade to the parking lot and then he turned his attention to his phone. The parent teacher conference was, in fact, happening in a few minutes. He had come directly from work and was still in uniform. He hesitated and left his chef coat on the driver's seat. The tshirt he was wearing would have to be enough. There was no time to go home and change.

Logan's teacher had always been friendly and kind. She was clearly taking the time to get to know Andy's son and he was grateful. Even so, the anxiety of the meeting had his stomach churning. Socializing in any way always took its toll on him. He entered the office and checked in. Then used his phone to look distracted while he waited for Ms. Ansur to lead him to the conference room.

"Good afternoon!" her voice was cheerful as always as she peeked her head through the door, "Mr. Phenome and Mrs. Cleere are waiting. If you'll follow me we can begin," she made small talk on the short walk to the room, opened the door for him, and grinned as Logan ran out to hug his father around the waist. Andy ruffled his curly hair before he ran back to playing with another student in the corner.

Andy pulled out a chair to sit at the table Ms. Ansur indicated. Paperwork was passed around the table as the other two inhabitants greeted him and introduced themselves.

Mrs. Cleere was the school's Special Needs advocate assigned to Logan. Mr. Phenome was the Special Needs teacher. The paperwork sitting on the table in front of them all was the education plan they were all there to discuss. Before they could begin, a knock came at the classroom door. Ms. Ansur opened it, and the other boy's mother entered. Her son raced into her arms, and Logan followed.

The little boy tried to lead his mother away, but Logan tugged on his sleeve,

"That's my jacket," his statement was followed with stunned silence. Andy could feel his eyes burning instantly with tears. Everyone around the table was beaming with excitement. The mother removed Logan's jacket and handed it to him. The jacket was promptly abandoned as Logan returned to his corner to play.

"Well... I'll start by informing you that we've been working on forming two to three word sentences. You can see there has been some progress!" Ms Ansur was the first to break the silence. Andy could barely pay attention the rest of the meeting. He nodded along, smiling to himself with pride. The meeting wrapped with signatures and handshakes. Andy knew that there was still a lot of work to do, but a tiny spark of hope had been ignited with a single three word sentence. He folded Logan's tiny hand in his, and led him to the car.

"Logan, would you like to eat some ice cream?" he asked as he helped his son buckle his car seat. Logan's grin lit up his entire face,

"Squeam?"

"Yes, ice cream. Let's go get some ice cream," Andy walked around the car, buckled his own seat belt and pulled out of the lot in the direction of their neighborhood ice cream shop. There, they would celebrate with two sundaes. Andy wondered how many more sentences he would get to hear. He smiled to himself and knew that one day he would hear all about Logan's inner world.