Quentin: Memorial For A Moron ….....[ Fiction; Pretty Long; Children; Mental Disability; Kindness; Memorial; Zoo ] Poem by Bri Edwards

The banker and his wife rejoiced. Their son was born.
As happened at first with boys, blue was the color most often worn …..
by their dear son, Quentin. They doted on him so,
planning for his future. To which college would he go?

Which instrument would he learn to play? Violin perhaps?
Would he be a baseball pitcher, or a swimmer swimming many laps?
Would he ‘marry well', and produce (for them) grandkids?
Never did they think he'd fail at life, ending up 'on the skids'!

He was a happy, healthy boy, full of energy, and most-outgoing.
Little did they know at first, a 'flaw' in Quentin was not showing.
Psychologists in ‘those days' would tell them: 'Quentin is a moron child.
His ‘mental age' may not exceed ten. He has retardation; it's ‘mild'.'

‘Mild retardation'? ! They'd had ‘signs', but the shock was great.
Was there nothing doctors could do to help before ‘too late'?
'I'm sorry', said their doctor. 'SOME children are idiots. It could be WORSE.
Quentin won't go to college or be ‘a leader', but don't think of it as a curse.'

His mom and dad, stunned, still thanked the doctor; they saved tears for later.
They read what they found about ‘morons'. They prayed Quentin would be greater …..
than a man with ‘a mental age between seven and twelve'.
They tried to prepare themselves and Quentin to cautiously delve ….
into the future.

{Quentin was ten years old.}

For two more years he attended the same classes as his best friends.
Then he was put in the 'un-graded class', for students who did not blend ….
….well with those whose mental ages and physical ages kept pace …..
with most other students and most of the world's human race.

{Those in Quentin's class were taught by a teacher for students, 'Special'.}

They were ‘Special-Ed' kids, not expected, at math or science, to excel,
or even reach an ‘average' ability. [BUT some things they did very well]
Their ‘academic' lessons were taught by a ‘Special-Ed' teacher with a lot of heart,
but they were mixed with the ‘normal' students for gym and art.

Kids from twelve to fifteen, with ‘special' needs, were in one class;
younger ones were in a second class. There was no pressure for them to ‘pass'.
The school had no ‘Special-Ed' for those sixteen and over. For families who could afford …..
it, there were, in some areas, 'special schools' providing ‘room and board'.

Quentin was the tallest student in his school, five feet-eight inches at ten!
By age fourteen he was 6' 3'. He'd be leaving school. What would happen then?
He played baseball [Little League] and at ‘right field' he was good.
He'd grown up with neighbor friends, but they ‘drifted apart', as you'd expect they would.

He'd sung in the family's church youth choir, and been a Scout for a while.
But his mental age made it more difficult to relate with friends; it became a trial …….
for both Quentin and his ‘normal' peers. BUT he (almost) always had a smile.
As he neared his 16th birthday, for ‘working papers' he did file.

He lived at home for the next ten years. His siblings went to college.
He seemed to understand his limitations, rarely seeking ‘advanced knowledge'.
He still enjoyed kids' TV shows and going to the zoo which was a block from home.
His parents taught him what he needed to know. In the neighborhood he was free to roam.

Sometimes he mowed lawns or shoveled snow. At 20 he was 6 feet 7.
He faithfully attended church with Mom and Dad, where he was ….reminded of Heaven.
He never showed much of the ‘normal' interest ‘boys' have for ‘girls'. NO.
Most people who ‘knew' were kind to him, but he'd get mad if called a 'retard' OR 'slow'.

A new grocery store was built in the neighborhood. He became a grocery bagger.
He took great pride in his job; he even walked, there, with a swagger.
It was a part time job, but that was all he needed. In summer he rode his bike,
but sometimes, in winter, he'd put on rubber boots, and to his bagger job he'd hike.

He never had a girlfriend; Quentin never learned to drive a car.
Every summer he and his* parents vacationed, but they never did go far.
He liked to read Sunday comics, and comic books; Superman was a favorite.
He seemed to love his grocery bagger job; it seemed he'd never quit.

Quentin loved watching animals at the zoo, especially the big cats.
He didn't care for the prairie dog colony; he said they looked like rats.
His parents gave him a zoo membership; he went several times a week.
He loved the brightly-colored macaw with its long tail and thick, curved beak.


[[ ten years pass ]]


Then one day as he approached the outdoor enclosure of the lions, Quentin froze.
A boy of twelve was lying still behind the cage bars, dressed in threadbare clothes.
Quentin had once wished to get through the cage bars, yet knew he should not do it.
Somehow a boy had gone where Quentin had fantasized being; the boy had beaten him to it.

No lion was in sight. It was feeding time inside the building.
Quentin, though a moron, was a clever ‘kid', and soon a ladder he was wielding.
Nearby, a workman's ladder had leaned; now Quentin hefted it to the tall inner fence.
A few onlookers watched with curiosity, and the zoo air filled quickly with suspense.

It appeared to some as though the boy inside the fence was bleeding …….
from a spot at the back of his head; first aid he might be needing.
Near him vines climbed a tall trellis to the roof of an adjoining shed.
A mother hurried away with her toddler, fearing the silent boy was dead.

Quentin was fearless, though some later would call him foolish too.
He climbed to the top of the twelve foot iron fence, dropped inside, and pulled the ladder through ……
……….. the bars so he'd have a way to escape, then knelt beside the boy.
Thinking like a boy himself, Quentin decided that ‘the trellis', the boy, did employ ……

…..to descend into the inner yard, but the boy had somehow fallen, hitting hard ……
…with his head, the concrete floor. Suddenly there was a lion's roar; Quentin's mind was jarred.
The male lion, its hunger recently-satisfied, menaced but did not come near.
Quentin placed the ladder against the trellis wall; he showed no fear.

Over one shoulder Quentin placed the boy as he stepped onto the ladder's bottom rung.
But just then the lioness entered. From its mouth a large chunk of meat hung.
And behind it followed two lion cubs, their little tails slowly moving side to side.
The female lion spied Quentin; the meat dropped. For Quentin there was no place to hide.

A roar most fearsome came from her mouth. She bounded, ……her cubs to defend.
In three leaps she closed the gap; her claws dug into Quentin's rear end.
She pulled Quentin and his burden to the floor. Her jaws clamped around his neck.
A small crowd had gathered outside the fence, their zoo visit now a wreck.

Helpless, they looked on, …..or turned away. One vomited upon the walk.
One woman let out a scream. Among them was shock. There was no talk.
The lioness shook Quentin's lifeless body and sniffed the boy. Then she went inside.
Her cubs followed her back, as did her mate. At least one ‘boy', that day died.

[[ hours pass by ]]

The news spread; the zoo made a statement; animal activists pleaded for the lion's life.

[[ days pass by ]]

Quentin's obituary was printed. Mourners, several hundred, joined the banker and his wife ……
……at the funeral mass a week later. The ‘other boy' was dead also, …..from a family poor.
The coroner said he'd probably fallen from the trellis and died when his head hit the floor.


Quentin was missed greatly by parents and neighbors, and shoppers at the store.
Six month later a plaque, affixed to a boulder, appeared beside the main Cat House door:

It read:

Quentin Frederick Solomon Jr.

June 28,1956
-
July 12,1982

Beloved Son, and Friend-to-All.

He died going to the aid of a boy he did not know,
in the outdoor lion compound. The community and zoo
salute his outstanding kindness and courage.

May he Rest In Peace.

January 18,1983



(written March 2017)
*see end of Poet's Notes