Jeff arrived directly from a hospital inpatient ward, a scruffy beanpole with downcast eyes and faraway gaze, and a pair of the biggest feet to ever trod on Penikese Island. Jeff came to us on an impressive cocktail of medications, but chemical restraints aren’t uncommon for the more difficult cases, and by his history of disruption and destruction, Jeff certainly fit that bill. But how much medication is too much? One day the staff and students were tossing the football around and someone yelled, “Hey James, here you go!” The ball sailed through the air and thunked off Jeff”s chest and rolled to the ground unregistered, his eyes down and hands still in pockets.
As so often happens, days became weeks and the busy, purposeful rhythm of Penikese life began to stir Jeff’s enveloping fog so that a bit of personality – clever, funny, and remorseful for what he’d put his mother through – began to emerge from his gangly frame. James proved a hard if not especially coordinated worker, and has had a couple of successful day passes with his mom, who now appears ready to take the next step for an overnight. Fingers crossed for both of them!
Back to those feet of his: Jeff came to Penikese with one pair of shoes, canvass high top sneakers (his work boots were impounded as evidence for a break-in he committed before he came to Penikese). Over time, his sneakers deteriorated to the point where the uppers were almost completely detached from the soles so that with the torn fabric, flapping rubber and escaping toes, Jeff looked a bit like a circus clown, at least from the bottom up.
Last week, Jeff was in the office fiddling with the scraps of his shoes when Toby had a brainstorm: he went into his office and Googled “extra large shoe sizes.” The top hit was a company called – what else? – BigShoes.com, and there in the athletic footwear section, were size 17 black canvas high tops. Toby ordered them, printed out the invoice and showed it to Jeff, who was practically agog with amazement, tugging at his hair and gushing, “Dude, that’s so awesome! Thank you!” Jeff just couldn’t get over it, muttering all the way back to the boat, a treat given that we hadn’t seen this much spontaneity from James in all his time with us.
The sneakers came today in the longest shoebox I promise you have ever seen, and we can’t wait to give them to Jeff, if only to see more of the person – a child in size 17 shoes – awakening from within.
