Then my mother appeared.
She didn’t smile.
Instead, she looked at me and quietly said that we needed to talk.
“You’re Not Going Yet.”
I thought she was joking.
Then she took my hand and led me upstairs.
She closed the bedroom door behind us.
I could hear my friends outside waiting.
My mother looked nervous.
She told me I could go to prom with him—but only after I heard something she had kept from me for years.
I couldn’t understand.
What could possibly have changed?
This was my best friend.
We had grown up together.
He had been there for birthdays, holidays, school events, bad days, and good ones.
Why would my mother suddenly try to stop me?
A Secret From Childhood
My mother finally began explaining.
She told me that when we were children, she had always worried about how other people might treat him.
She had watched him experience moments when people underestimated him simply because he had Down syndrome.
She had seen people assume he couldn’t make decisions for himself or participate in the same experiences as everyone else.
And she was afraid.
Not necessarily of him.
She was afraid of what other people might say.
