The Literacy Review - Gallatin School of Individualized Study - New ...

Buckey and the Chocolate Cake:
A Story about a Teenager with Down Syndrome
Veronica Pinder
36 Appreciating
This story is about my son Rodict, who is called by his nickname, Buckey, most of the
time because people cannot pronounce his name. I also call him Buckey. This spring
morning, April 15th , a Sunday morning, is a day that I will never forget. This was the
morning that Buckey’s baseball team was going to attend the baseball parade that they
ususally have in Brooklyn every year.
Buckey plays with The Challenges. Everyone who plays baseball, even the teenagers
who are not mentally challenged, attend this parade. Due to the rainy day, the parade
had to be cancelled. Since the parade was cancelled, I told Buckey I was going to make
a cake. Buckey likes to help me in the kitchen, especially when I am going to make a
chocolate cake. But this morning, he did not want to help me make the cake.
He made all kinds of excuses. Some of the excuses were that he did not want any
cake today, or that it was too early to make cake. Then, when I said to him that I would
make the cake later on that evening, he gave me another excuse that it would be too
late in the evening. He suggested to me to wait until the next week when I went to
get groceries, and then I could get everything to make the cake. I said to him I had
everything to make the cake already.
I had to go to the supermarket, and that morning it was raining very hard. When I got
home from the supermarket with the food to cook, it was around 12:30. By 4:30, I had
finished cooking dinner. I decided I would start making the cake. I turned on the oven
to heat it up. I then called my son to come and help me make the cake. He refused and
reminded me again that he did not want to help me make any chocolate cake. At this
time, I did not understand why he did not want me to make the cake or help me. This
was very strange to me.
I proceeded to get the things together to make the cake. I called my son again, not
knowing that he was standing at the kitchen door looking at me. Something in my mind
said, Do not mix the cake now—turn off the oven. He said to me, “You are not going to
make the cake anymore.” I said, “Yes, I am going to make it in a few minutes.” Then I
remembered that about two months earlier, I had made a cake and left half a can of
frosting in the refrigerator. Now, since he was standing near to the refrigerator, I told
him, “Take the frosting out, please.”
He began to run out of the kitchen. I told him to get back into the kitchen and do as
I asked him to do. He said to me, with an attitude, “Do what?” I looked at him very hard.
Then he said, “Oh, the frosting,” and he got the frosting. He then turned the frosting can