Racer’s Paper Coaster
My nephew, “Racer”, is a unique and wonderful child. He had a rough start, being born prematurely thirteen weeks early, weighing in at just two pounds two ounces. At seven years old now, he is a joy. He has always been very bright. Never quite behaving like the other children his age…but processing the world in his own Racer way. I watched him once put a puzzle together at the age of two or three….without looking at it. He was looking at something else while his hands moved the puzzle pieces into place…without hesitation.
He is always surprising us with his uncanny memory. When driving, he has always noticed and remembers how to get to and from different locations, even if he has done it only once. He gets agitated if you take a different route…you are doing it wrong! Also noticing the details along the route…street light configuration, etc. I was with him once and he was commenting on a street light that had been out on a recent trip and was now fixed….we were on the freeway at the time, he was talking about a light one block East of the exit ramp we were passing. Who notices things like that? Racer does!
He could read early and well, but chose not to share this information with his teacher who was convinced for quite a while that he was a non-reader. He finally shared his secret with her and showed her that he could indeed read. In kindergarten, the school wanted to move him to an autistic class. As part of the process, his parents took him to the doctor to verify their position that Racer wasn’t autistic. At one point during the examination the doctor placed a piece of paper on the table in between himself and Racer. He asked, “can you write your name here?” Racer picked up the pencil and wrote “ɹəɔɐɹ” so that it was correct from the doctors point of view…then he smiled and said “just joking!”
Last Friday night, Racer presented his dad, my brother DJ, with the drawing below and said “this is what we are making tonight.” And then they did…with dad doing some cutting and Racer placing the pieces based on his design. DJ sent me these pictures via cell phone:
The Blueprint
The Finished Rollercoaster
Racer…”The Mastermind”
He went on to build a little amusement park in the living room, with additional rides and retail shops.
Racer has also recently announced that he wants to start a web page. He said that it will be called “w w w dot paper friends world dot com.” Start a web site? Whoa. When I was talking to my brother on the phone, DJ repeated the name of the web site to me forgetting the word “world”. I knew that it was coming…I knew that Racer wouldn’t let it slide, and I had to laugh as I heard in the background…”No, dad, it’s w w w dot paper friends WORLD dot com!” Get it right!
