Toys In A Sandbox by Carol Pehrson (reader novel .txt) 📕

Frederick reached into his closet and took out his black dress pants. He knew that a person wore only good clothes to church. He reached in his drawer and took out his black socks and white dress shirt. As he proceeded to get dressed, Frederick wondered why it was that a person had to get dressed up for church. ‘Why couldn't I wear my play clothes?’ he thought as he struggled with tiny buttons on his white dress shirt. ‘My play clothes feel nice. They don't feel all scratchy,’ he thought as he tried to attach his black and red stripped clip-on tie. "Uggh!" He grunted with frustration. Something was wrong. His tie wouldn't clip on like it was supposed to. Instead it looked funny and kept falling off.
"Ma!" Frederick shouted. "Ma!"
"What is it, dear?" asked Frederick's mother as she entered his bedroom.
Frederick threw down the unmanageable tie in frustration and said, "It don't stay on!"
"Won't stay on?" his mother questioned and corrected at the same time. "Here let me have a look," she said as she walked over to her son.
Frederick was her only child. He was born with Downs Syndrome and although physically he was twelve years old, he had only the patience and comprehension of a five-year old. However, what Frederick lacked in learning ability, he made up for in love. Frederick found fault with no one. ‘If only all people had such acceptance,’ she thought to herself as she appraised his situation.
"Here's your problem, Frederick. Did you forget to button your shirt from the bottom like I showed you?" she asked.
"I don't know," Frederick replied slowly.
"Well try this," his mother started, "B is for bottom and that's where you start. That way you'll always end up even."
"B is for bottom. That's where I start," Frederick repeated mumbling to himself until he finished buttoning his dress shirt. "Look Ma! It's done O.K. now 'cuz I started at B is for bottom," Fredrick smiled proudly as he clipped his tie into the collar.
"Good Boy! I knew you could do it!" His mother complimented him. "Now go downstairs and tell your dad that he should bring the car out front and I'll be right out."
"O.K. Ma!" Fredrick shouted over his shoulder as he ran downstairs, mumbling "B is for bottom" all the way down the staircase.
Fredrick leaped off the last two steps and bounded up to his father, who was just putting on a navy blazer.
"Look Pa! B is for bottom and I'm O.K." Fredrick shouted proudly as he patted his tie.
"You most certainly are, son," Fredrick's father said with a smile as he gently tousled his son's curly red hair. "Is your mother almost ready?"
"Yeah, she said you should get the car out front," Fredrick replied.
"O.K., let's go do that," his dad said as he ushered Fredrick out through the kitchen toward the garage.

After church Fredrick's neighbor Stanley called for Fredrick to come and play with him. Stanley was only in the first grade but he and Fredrick seemed to play well together. Fredrick never picked on Stanley, like the other big kids did.
"Where did you go this morning," Stanley asked.
"We hadda go to church," Fredrick replied.
"Why?" Stanley asked.
"I dunno," replied Fredrick.
"Then why'd you go?" Stanley asked.
"'Cuz Ma and Pa said so," Fredrick answered.
"Oh," Stanley said softly with the wisdom that only a child could comprehend when receiving a direct order from a parent.
"Do you go to church?" Fredrick asked.
"Sometimes, at Christmas, Easter, stuff like that. I think it's got something to do with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. If you don't go, they don't come,"
Stanley answered.
"Oh," Fredrick nodded knowingly.
"So why do you go to church every week?" Stanley asked.
"Ma says we go to visit God," Fredrick answered as he helped Stanley pat the first of a small ridge of mountains into place in the sandbox.
"God who?" Stanley asked while he patted the sand.
"Just God. I guess he don't got a last name, 'cept I hear the people in church say 'God Almighty' sometimes," Fredrick said putting in a twig for a tree.
"God Almighty. That must be the whole name. You think so? Like Stanley Pollacheck and Fredrick Hannon," Stanley explained as he started to shape another mountain.
"God Almighty, Stanley Pollacheck and Fredrick Hannon," Fredrick started mumbling repeatedly as he started to pour water into his man-made lake.
"Yup, Fredrick, I bet that's the whole name. God Almighty. Is it a man or a lady, this God person?" Stanley asked still patting his second mountain range.
"I dunno. I never saw. But I think it must be big 'cuz the house it lives in is real big!" Fredrick said lifting his sandy hand up high over his head.
"Maybe it's a giant! Like 'Jack and the Beanstalk'! G-r-r-r!" Stanley growled as he lifted himself up to his full four foot height and pretended to be the giant.
"You're funny, Stanley," Fredrick laughed, "But I don't think God is a scary giant. People would be afraid to go visit. And I ain’t ever heard a growl in church!"
"I think I heard my mom say God lived in heaven," Stanley said as he shoveled out a road for their trucks.
"What's heaven?" Fredrick asked.
"Not what. Where, Fredrick. It's up there," Stanley said pointing his hand upward, "In the sky."
"No kiddin', Stanley, you think God lives up in the sky. Why you say that?" Fredrick asked as he put another twig into place.
"Simple," Stanley started, "from up there God can see everything. And besides, my mom said once that my Grandma was UP in heaven, living with God. She looked at the sky when she said it. So that's where heaven is, up in the sky." Stanley explained.
"How'd God keep from falling out?" Fredrick asked, now totally taken with Stanley's tale.
"Well, close as I can figure it out, God must be a pretty powerful dude. He makes all the trees, and mountains and roads and lakes, all the stuff. Right?" Stanley asked.
"Yeah!" Fredrick agreed.
"Well if God can do all that making of stuff and also take care of dead people I suppose God has figured out a way to keep from falling out of heaven onto us. Don't you think?"
"Maybe," Fredrick replied as he drove his truck through the road around the first mountain.
"What do you mean, maybe?" Stanley asked, after all he was the big kid and supposed to know more than a little kid, like Fredrick.
"Maybe, God is like us," Fredrick said. "We just built mountains and roads and lakes," he pointed down to their creations in the sand.
Stanley looked pensively at the sandbox and shook his head slowly in agreement. "Yeah, your right and maybe we're all just toys in God's sandbox."

Text: Carol Pehrson
Publication Date: 11-05-2012

All Rights Reserved