An Exceptional Twist by Kimi Flores

to her, though.
    The class did warm-up exercises with some of
the equipment they’d brought, then performed the moves the kids had
learned in the last session. The best part was watching the kids
try to teach Stefen the moves. Gone was the stoic business man. He
was different with these kids, acting silly and genuinely enjoying
himself.
    Toward the end, Simon came up to her and
tugged on her sleeve. “Ms. Leah.”
    “Yes, honey?” She toweled off the sweat from
her neck.
    “I think Stefen is cool. You can hang out
with him. I’m okay with it. And can he come next time, too?” He
nodded to himself like he’d been thinking really hard about it.
    There was the reality. Stefen wouldn’t be
coming to anymore classes. He was leaving.
    With a heavy heart, she gulped hard and
looked at Stefen across the room, talking to a couple of her
giggling female students. She bent down until she was at eye level
with Simon. “No,
hon, I’m sorry. He lives far away. He’s just visiting.”
    “Oh.” His shoulders slouched.
    She hated disappointing her kids.
    Then he burst out, “Maybe he’ll visit us
again.” A bright smile broke on Simon’s face.
    She loved how quickly her kids could bounce
back. If only it was that easy for her.
     

     
    Madison knocked out the second they were in
the car. Stefen was still on a high from the dance class and
wondered if he should share the reason he’d enjoyed himself so
much.
    “You know,” he started, “there was a boy in
my high school that had Down Syndrome. His name was Toby.” His
chest constricted a little just mentioning his old friend. “We were
kids, and none of us really paid much attention to him. But one day
during senior year, my swim team and I found him doing laps in the
pool before practice and, you know what?” He paused a moment to
look at her.
    Wide eyes stared back, waiting for him to
continue.
    “He was fast. Not quite as quick as the rest
of us, but faster than the average person. Toby’s passion for
swimming was contagious and we loved being around him.”
    He swallowed down the lump of emotion and
pushed past his discomfort to tell her, “After talking to our
coach, we decided to make him an honorary member of the team.
Wherever we went, they knew that Toby would be opening the meet. He
swam a handful of laps before any of us got in the water and would
joke around, saying that he would pee so it was nice and warm for
us.” This made him smile. It wasn’t a memory he shared with just
anyone, but it felt really good to show Leah a deeper side of his
life.
    “Stefen, that’s so inspiring.” Her eyes
began to gloss over. “What happened to him?”
    Who knew we had something like this in
common?
    A wave of grief passed over him, and he
rubbed at his eyes. “He got really sick before one of our biggest
meets and ended up in the hospital.” Breathing deep, he swallowed
hard. “We were all pulling for him and visited him whenever we
could. We even had a parade in his honor. His mom set him up in a
chair by the window, so he could see us march by with signs.”
    This part was even more difficult to share.
Taking a big breath, he let it out slowly in an attempt to keep it
together. He spoke softly as his voice tapered off. “He died
shortly after.”
    He looked out the driver’s side window,
blinking hard. He felt too vulnerable. “There were so many people
at his funeral. A handful of members from every team we’d ever
competed against were there, on top of our whole school, team, and
everyone in our community that he had some kind of effect on. The
speeches went on for hours. He touched so many lives in the short
amount of time he was here.” His voice went soft as he really
thought about it. “I can’t imagine I’ll have anywhere near half as
many people at my funeral.”
    Taking a chance, he glanced over to
Leah.
    Her lips quivered as she stared back at him,
sniffling. “I’m so sorry.” She placed a tender hand on his forearm.
“I understand.