My Autistic Sister

• Charlie Sheehan, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2020

Hi, my name is Charlie, I have a sister and a brother. My sister’s name is Addison but our family calls her Addie for short. Some noises we can’t hear very well, she hears very loudly. Like a shower to us is not much noise but to her it can be a fair bit of noise. This is because Addie has autism. I’m going to tell you what it could be like if you were Addie for a day.
Addie wakes up to tones of noises. She doesn’t do her jobs, instead sits on the couch and waits for the space she needs. When she is doing her jobs mum/dad has to help her but when she is doing her hair no one can help her. When mum/dad helps her Bailey sometimes needs the help and I sometimes need it too bit we try to cope because she is autistic. Normally she is grumpy. I try to do my jobs. If we play a game we get told off and Addie screams saying “no, no, no I don’t want to!!!” But I get up and do my jobs. When I do this she screams at me too but I ignore her. On the way to school Addie is usually grumpy or silly but if something is on at school she is happy and chatty.
At school I don’t see Addie much but she sometimes comes up to me and hugs me, it’s sooo annoying but I try to cope with it. On e a Tuesday Addie goes to thins thing and gets to do cool stuff and skips 3 hours of school! One more thing that Addie get is chocolate!!! After the thing she goes to!!!
After school Addie puts her bag down, hugs our dog Harley and asks for the TV. Mum says no, you haven’t done your jobs and she screams and let’s all the stress out from school. I sometimes can’t cope and yell too. Mum/dad have to help Addie with her jobs when I or Bailey need it. Most the time she will get a snack and go outside. When she’s done all her jobs (which takes forever) she watches TV.
At tea time (about 5:00 or 5:30) Addie eats all of her tea but Bailey and I are fussy. Addie loves having tea, she will eat all of it or try it. If we have to wash the dishes she will cry and scream saying she doesn’t want to. Mum and Dad usually get their way, they say “Go to bed then!” Or they bribe her. After all of the screaming we watch TV. At bed time she screams saying she does not want to go to bed and me miss out on book time. She also says she will stay up all night which she usually doses off.
So as you can see, being autistic is not easy but life isn’t easy either, just letting autistic kids know they are not alone.