Getting Picked Up...

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...by a five year old Autstic boy.

I thought I'd share this little story with you all because it amused me greatly and made me feel good. It's also strange that so soon after being diagnosed AS that I should accidentally bump into another in our little family.

My Mum and I went into the shops yesterday. While my Mum was looking at something, I went to this local cafe and brought us coffee. I found a table and sat down to wait. I was sipping my coffee, when this little boy sits down at my table across from me. I put my book down and smile at him. Thinking it was strange that he decided to sit with me, since I've never ever seen him before and well I don't invite social interaction (so I'm told). The boy just sits there. So I say hello, thinking maybe he got lost and couldn't find his mother.

But nope, he starts talking about trains. Yes, trains. I listen as best I could, since he spoke super fast. Politely I asked questions and he got very excited by my interest. He told me he's got the ticket from every time he's gone on the train. I asked if he'd been on the train line which comes down to this area. He nodded and started naming all the stations on the train line that goes from the city to close to where I live. I named them along with him, since I've travelled it a lot myself. He thought that was amazing. I told him he must be very smart to remember them all, since there was 50 of them. His Mum came over and apologised for her son interrupting me. I told her it was fine. His Mum said they had to go and the boy got upset. He didn't want to go because I liked trains too. He asked his Mum, if he could take me home with them and keep me, because he wanted to show me his trains. I found this really cute. When his Mum said no, the little boy cried. Actually cried. I told him that I would really like to see his trains, but I couldn't because then my Mum and my dog would miss me and get upset. He nodded sadly and I remembered that I had an old train ticket in my bag. I got it out and gave it to him, for his train collection. He grinned happily because he didn't have a ticket that was for a journey that long. Then abruptly ran off towards who I assumed was his father and sister. The lovely part was his Mum, looking down at me and telling me that I just made her son's day. She said he sits and talks to random people about trains all the time, but they are usually become irritated, ignore him or give her a talking to for not watching him properly. Despite her best efforts he really likes telling people about trains. She said he had Autism so in his mind he simply thought he was making friends and it was so nice to see someone make an effort to be kind.

Like most people on here, I'm not that great at social interaction. So be told that someone (even if he's five) absolutely enjoyed talking to me, is a rare occurrence. It made me feel pretty great.

Thank you so much for sharing this cute story Alice. What a nice perspective, and a great way for me to start my day too. It put a smile on my face.

Thats so cute

I'm glad that you both found it amusing too.

Just one problem I have with this.

I don't see any mention of telling the mother to confirm the autism or not >_<

Dammit, that probably would've helped them. Getting a diagnosis that early would've been good.

By god that is the cutest damned thing I've heard in a while. Of course it was trains, too! Seems like the go-to stereotypical obsession for young Aspies.

I'm gonna go visit my little sisters later tomorrow and you just made my morning! Now I'm all antsy to go visit home and see the kids. Kids rule. Especially smart and polite ones.

That sounds so neat! It would have been even cooler if you could have shared one of your own interests with him!

It sounds like they already knew the diagnosis and would likely not have mentioned it otherwise. The only thing I may have done differently was to mention to the mother that I had a form of autism too, to give her hope that her child would be able to grow up kind and have a decent life. Then again, the situation may not have lent itself to that. In the end, AliceInAspieland did a great kindness to that child and it made my day to read about it. I can only hope that any of us would do the same if a similar situation presented itself.

aww thats sweetest thing. and it was trains. hehehe.

I own two model trains.

As a child, I was obsessed with trains too.

I'd have paid attention to the child too and probably told him stuff about trains.