In life, what you value is all that counts. I got a big lesson on that one last night, from Chris and his point of view in life.

While it is not yet John's sixteenth birthday he has already gotten his gift. I can't remember the last birthday where we made a big deal out of the day or really bought him very much. This year should have been the year he got a drivers license, so his Dad had been fretting about John not getting a car. In his Fathers mind, his brother got a car, John should get a car. Early in the spring the discussion about how to handle this turned into possibly getting him a golf cart or such to ride in. That was not practical as we live in a wooded and open field area, golf carts do better on smooth surfaces. We both knew he would love a four wheeler, but is unable to ride one alone, and they are not really build for two. Go carts were an option, but Dad chose a John Deere ride on called a "gater". It was perfect, car like, top speed thirty miles an hour and build to handle the dirt fields and woods near our home. Like any Father excited about the toy for his son, he had to give it to him early.
John was a natural on the gater. While he still did not understand the driving part, he got the gas and break and we took turns riding with him and allowing him some time to drive as well. When John cut out into the woods near our house and found the usual group of young boys riding go carts and four wheelers, he was quickly excepted into the group. Finally, he was one of the riders, and did not have to stand back and long to have something to ride as well. The boys were nice to him and ask me questions about the gater and waited calmly as John struggled to follow them in a circle race track. Acceptance. We felt acceptance among this pre-teen pack.
My only fear was one young man, a twenty one year old high functioning autistic named Chris. For years John and I had shared a special bond with Chris. Every day we walked to his house and stood outside the chain link fence and watched him kick a football into the tall oaks before it came outside the fence and landed near us. Everyday, John would pick up the ball and carry it back to Chris to kick again. It was a special bond and now, we would be on the gater, not on foot. Would it matter? Only Chris would be the one without a riding toy now, would he notice? As he stood at the fence and watched us riding with the other boys, I worried, would we offend him in someway? Last night I bit the bullet when I saw Chris outside and learned a lesson in value.
John was in the passenger seat carrying his favorite race car in his hands. For over a week John had been playing with a Dale Earnhardt race car, taking it everywhere. Now as I drove near Chris I saw the smile on his face and stopped the gater and turned off the motor.
"Can I see it?" Chris ask, his eyes glued to the spot where I stopped.
"Sure" I helped him open the gate and watched as Chris walked over to the passenger side, when I expected him to walk to the drivers side.
"Can I see it?" he ask again this time to John who was still in the gater, race car in hand. John knew the "it" Chris ask to see, and handed him the race car. I was caught off guard.
"This is old, it was Dale Earnhardt, he died in that car, he crashed, I saw it, did you?" Chris held the car as if it would break if you looked at it too hard.
"Yes, it was sad wasn't it."
Chris traced the number three on the car and froze as he ask, "Can I have it?"
I felt a twinge of pain as I gently told him John got it when he was just a little boy and it was one the he played with the most, no, we wanted to keep it.
"Thank you for letting me see it." Chris said as he handed it back to John and walked back inside the fence and picked up his football. He pointed to me.
"You get it, John has the car." With that he walked about thirty feet from the fence, did his usual warm ups and then kicked the ball so high and far he would make a profession green with envy. I ran after the ball and took it back to the fence.
"Max, come here." Chris always calls my dog Jack Max, and Jack understands and runs to the fence and waits for Chris to pet his head and call him a good dog. Our night was normal, the way it had played out a hundred times over the years. Chris never said a word about the gater or even seemed to see it. In his quite way, he adjusted to the new object without paying it any attention. The gater had no value as it had to all the four wheeler boys, but the toy car sure did.
"Take care of that car." Chris said as he stood up after petting Jack.
"He will, I promise he will. See you tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow." with that Chris turned and headed back into this house.
John smiled at me when I ask him if he wanted to drive. I knew what counted in John's world, and now, I knew too, what counted for Chris.
"You know John next month for your birthday, Dad wants to have you a party, what do you say we have a NASCAR party and have Chris over?"
John looked at me and smiled, he too, knows what counts most in life.