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“Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?” Marie asks. She has obviously had her instructions.
“Coffee please,” we both say.
She nods and goes into the kitchen.
Dad sits in his chair. There’s an awkward silence, and Rua fidgets, obviously picking up on the atmosphere.
“I have something for you, Rua,” James says quietly. “It’s a toy I’ve been working on for a while.” He glances at my parents. “You’re welcome to look at it first to see if you think it’s suitable for him, or save it for later if you want.”
Surprised, I watch him rummage in Leia’s bag. He brings out a round object, maybe eight inches in diameter, that sits comfortably in the palm of his hand. A white sphere rests inside a clear one, and as he turns the clear one in his hands, the white sphere inside stays the right way up. The front has a cutaway section with two large cartoon eyes and a simple smiling mouth. “It’s for children with autism,” he says, “to help them learn and communicate with others.”
Mum and Dad stare at him.
“Caregivers can control how much noise and light it emits so it doesn’t overstimulate,” he continues. “Its responses are predictable and stable, so the child feels safe. I also used a cartoon face as I’ve read that they prefer that to a more realistic face.”
They continue to stare at him. Mum presses her fingers to her mouth.
His gaze slides to me, worried. “Have I made a mistake?”
“You made this?” I can barely get the words out.
He nods. “When you told me your brother was autistic and liked robots, I came up with the idea, and Henry helped me with the design. I… ah… thought Rua might like it…” He looks embarrassed now, as if he thinks he’s committed some faux pas.
“James,” I say, my voice husky with emotion, “we’re all incredibly touched. Nobody’s ever done anything like that for Rua before.”
He blinks. “Oh.”
“Show us how it works,” I suggest.
“To turn it on, you can just say Hello Kare or Kia Ora Kare.” He pronounces it the Maori way—kah-reh, rolling the ‘r’ so it’s almost a soft ‘d’. It means friend, but it’s also used to attract attention, and it’s a lovely name for the toy. As he says the phrase, a line of soft blue lights appears around the toy. “Or you can press this button on the top,” he says, obviously realizing that many autistic children struggle with speech. He turns it off, then on with the button.
The blue lights reappear. He places it on the floor, then pushes it, and the ball rolls along the carpet, while the face inside stays upright. Rua watches it, wide-eyed.
James then claps his hands gently twice, and the ball rolls toward him. Rua stares, his jaw dropping.
James does it again—he rolls the ball away, then claps twice, and the ball rolls back to him. He rolls it away a third time, then says, “Do you want to try, Rua?”
Rua looks uncertain. James repeats the action—he claps, takes the ball, rolls it, and does this two or three times, nice and slow.
Eventually, as he rolls Kare away, Rua claps his hands twice, and the ball rolls toward him. He grasps it, thrilled.
“Well done, Rua,” James says with a smile. “Kare is your friend.”
Rua picks up the ball and hugs it to him.
“Can you give him a kiss?” James asks. “On the top of his head?”
Rua frowns and puts the ball down. James picks it up and gently presses his lips to the top, and Kare gives a playful chirp, its lights changing to pink hearts briefly before returning to blue, while on the front its ‘face’ beams a smile. James rolls it away, and Rua claps his hands so it rolls toward him, picks it up, and kisses it. When Kare chirps and glows pink, and Rua laughs, my mum nearly bursts into tears. I understand why—Rua struggles to show affection, and he doesn’t enjoy playing with other children, and therefore has few friends.
“James,” my dad says, “I can’t believe you designed this.”
“It does lots of other games,” he replies. “I’ll go through them with you, and you can decide which ones you think Rua might like.”
“How much will it cost?” Mum asks, wiping beneath her eyes. “It must be very expensive.”
“Toys that improve cognitive development often cost thousands of dollars,” James says, “but we’re hoping to offer it for much less than that, maybe a couple hundred dollars.”
Mum nods. “We’ll do our best to save up. I think it will be an amazing toy for him.”
