Maung Tun Thu - Summer Gate

Most wanted things

"Why don't they show us this?"

It was the spring of 1993. I was talking to my wife, Susan. We were reading a file from the local adoption agency. There were only two of us in the office. If even half of what I was reading was true, the child documented in this file was likely a psychopath who hated or opposed all social issues.

The file is filled with typewritten reports and notes. It contains observations and observations on this child over a period of eight years. It also contains orders made by the family court and submissions and comments sent by the Department of Social Services.

These documents describe the condition of an 11-year-old child. This child is mentally retarded. Not to mention bad.

It's not good either. There is one thing. He is often so violent that he can't control it. He has to be constantly medicated to reduce his violent behavior.

This child is physically aggressive towards the staff who are caring for him. Not only does he not only wet his bed, but he also often wakes up in the morning and does not get out of bed. Finally, when he does get out of bed, he is unable to walk properly.

He was a child who had been severely neglected as a child. He was not fed properly, bathed properly, or changed properly. He was separated from his mother at the age of 11 months and sent to foster care. He was briefly reunited with his mother, but only briefly. He was immediately returned to foster care, and spent most of his life in foster care.

We are reading this child's file because of my wife. That spring, we saw pictures of starving children in Africa on the news. One night, we saw on the television screen the bodies of children who had been mercilessly killed.

Susan, furious at the sight, quickly pulled out the TV guide and looked for another good program to watch. When she flipped through the guide, the first thing she saw was an advertisement. The advertisement was an appeal to experienced parents from a social group called “The Hubbard Program.” It was a plea for experienced parents to help protect mentally challenged children. According to the advertisement, some of these children had been abused and abandoned.

Sue (Susan) was stunned for a long time by the coincidence. Then, after reading the advertisement over and over again, she tore up the paper.

Several weeks later, the two of us arrived here and were reading and studying this file...

But everything I've been reading is scary. What we want is the kind of people who can be trained to live a normal life. The kind of people we're seeing now are not what we expected at all.

I was greatly relieved that Sue herself seemed to agree with me. “I don’t think we can do this with a child like this,” Sue said. “If there was even a little bit of evidence that would be enough to help this child, I would be willing to do it. But I haven’t found any evidence yet.”

“Then let's give you this file back,” I said. Sue stood up from her seat.

"Ah...what is this?"

She was holding a piece of blue paper that I had never seen before. It had fallen out of the file and onto the floor, and Sue had picked it up. At the top of the paper was a small, scribbled note. The note read, “The things I want most.”

Sue went to the table lamp. I hesitated for a moment and then followed her. It was not easy to read the writing. I traced the pencil marks with my fingertips, which were too delicate to be read. Then I deciphered the meaning of the writing. What was written was...

  "The things I want most

          A family

          A fishing rod

          A family"