Doreen and Chet. Chapter One The Encounter

Doreen and Chet are school mates at the Litchfield Special Needs Academy for mentally challenged adults. Doreen is a precocious twenty two year old with the mental capacity of a child of four and Chet is twenty eight and is a high functioning autistic who develops a childlike crush on Doreen unbeknownst to her. It doesn’t take long for Doreen to notice Chet as he is constantly around her acting like a silly schoolboy showing off how he can dance like what he calls a hip hopper. Neither of them truly understands what these strange new feelings that are taking an ever increasing amount of their attention are or what they could lead up to. All Doreen knows is that this guy who she’s gotten used to being there at her school is somehow now in her personal space more than ever before.

Chet has never shown any interest in the opposite sex before and he is just beginning to explore these new and deep seeded feelings he’s developing. Chet started coming home giddy and excited and his mother Maggie was beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about. Chet was normally a pretty quiet man/boy who often showed little emotion unless something bad or unusual happened at school. She was happy however to see that he was indeed excited about something even if she wasn't quite sure what it was. Finally after about two weeks of experiencing this new cheerful behavior from Chet she just could not hold it in anymore and had to go find out for herself what brought this turn about in his disposition. So she made an appointment with Miss Jenn the director at the school. The following Monday morning after she dropped Chet off to go into class, she went to meet with Miss Jenn in her office. After some pleasantries she commented on Chet’s new upbeat attitude and wanted to know what possible changes have taken place that has changed Chet’s outlook. Miss Jenn was shocked to find out that Chet had not told her about Doreen, his new romantic interest at school. It was becoming common knowledge around the small campus that Chet has a serious crush on Doreen. Even some of the more advanced students were realizing what was going on and even began to tease Chet and Doreen with childish songs and chants about there blossoming relationship.

Maggie thought she knew her son better than anybody as she has been taking care of him all of his life as his father walked out on the family when he was two after a psychologist told them their son was autistic and will probably need permanent long term care or possibly be institutionalized. Maggie, loving her son like any mother does decided that she was up to the task to take care of him for as long as she was able as she was so in love with her baby boy. His father though had his apprehensions right from hearing the news. Over time Chet’s father become more despondent and disappointed that he wasn’t going to have a normal father/son relationship with what he considered a defective boy. After 5 months he couldn’t hold in his frustration and disappointment and left Maggie to raise Chet on her own.

Doreen who was born 3 months prematurely to a drug addicted alcoholic mother became a ward of the state of Montana from birth. She has been moved around from different resident homes and foster care until about two years ago when her social worker Stephanie Hicks moved her into Litchfield Academy as a permanent resident as she thought it would be a good fit for her, and so far she was right. Doreen is a sweet young lady who has learned to adapt with change and has always had a very easy going demeanor considering her upbringing. Perhaps sometimes not knowing how the real world works and how callous and uncaring so called normal people can be can turn into an advantage as it seems to have for Doreen. She just likes everyone even those that teased her or treated her poorly over the course of her life. She especially likes Miss Jenn, her teacher Miss Vikey, and Stephanie and they all adore her. After finding out about Chet’s new reason for his happiness Maggie is at first hurt that Chet didn’t tell her himself as he is fairly good at articulating his thoughts and feelings to his mom. The hurt though quickly turned to excitement as she was able to watch her son, grow and interact with Doreen.

That night at dinner Maggie asked Chet if he would introduce her to his special friend, so the next day instead of just dropping Chet off at the academy Maggie went with him inside and said “Remember Chet, last night you promised me that you would introduce me to Doreen”. “Yeah I remember” he grumbled, not quite knowing how to feel about introducing her to a girl. He spotted Doreen across the room and his eyes instantly lit up and he started grinning. Maggie then knew which of the many young girls in the room was Doreen as Chet's gaze turned into a stare. He then took his mothers hand and led her over to Doreen who was sticking plastic flowers into a pot pretending to be making a bouquet. Chet taped Doreen on the shoulder ever so gently to get her attention and said “Doreen this is my mom, remember I told you she is a good cooker”. Doreen looked a little puzzled at first but then let out a big happy smile and asked Maggie if she made her some brownies as they are her favorite. Maggie said “No not today, but it’s a pleasure to meet you Doreen” then Chet said “Some people say that Doreen is my girlfriend” then they both started to laugh.  

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