Adam spoke in monotone voice. He wasn’t autistic but would have loved people to think he was.
I liked him. My colleagues didn’t. Casper and Trudy had endured more years of his nuisance and were especially averse to his idiosyncrasies.
It seemed as if his task was to see how much he could irritate us. Daily.
I say I liked him, but that is not entirely true. At first, I felt as strongly about him as the others did. He was annoying. He went out of his way to ask stupid questions, provoke us and to do the most aggravating things he could think of.
He would buy music that he knew he wouldn’t listen to. We knew this because each time he purchased a cassette tape, he brought it back the following day for a refund.
“Why don’t you listen to it first Adam?” I would ask.
“No, it’s okay, I know I like it.”
“But you always bring them back.”
“That’s because they are faulty.”
“All of them? Adam, in the past 2 weeks, you’ve purchased 11 cassettes and brought them all back again. I play each one after you leave and none of them have had anything wrong with them.”
“A man outside wearing a tin hat just tried to mug me.” he would reply. “He grabbed me by the shoulders and told me to give him my wallet.”
This was often Adam’s response to confrontation. His replies were totally off-topic and grew increasingly exaggerated the more one paid him attention.
He would peer through thick rimmed spectacles with a dead pan expression. He reminded me of a certain actor and whenever this person was in a film, it would make me chuckle to myself.
Casper had a personal reason for disliking him because Adam had played on the emotions of one of his close friends and had subsequently mocked the friend when he became upset about it.
One day, Trudy told us a story of one of her encounters with Adam on the first floor. He had been lingering around the bible study booklets.
We had the ‘Cover to Cover Series’ and the ‘Lifebuilder Bible Study Series’, which are booklets about individual books of the bible and also topics such as, parables, the end times and faith.
Adam had picked up a booklet entitled, “The Fruits of the Spirit” and had taken it to the counter where Trudy was busy working. Because she has good customer service skills, she had looked up to give him the attention he required. He began leafing through it and pinpointing the various virtues mentioned, which were listed in the same order as that of Galatians Chapter 5. As ‘Love’ was the title of the first chapter, he had decided to begin with that.
“What is love?” he had asked her.
After her reply, he began a ritual of identifying each chapter title then asking Trudy about it. He had covered questions about, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness.
Trudy’s patience was wearing thin. There was only one virtue left, so he asked,
“What is self-control?”
According to Trudy’s story, he did not use any vocal expression. He didn’t need to. She already knew he was not the slightest bit interested in the contents or the principles thereof.
She had had enough. She had gritted her teeth and looked at Adam straight in the eye, replying,
“You want to know what self-control is? It is…what…I…am…doing…right now!”
One evening while at home, Adam came across my mind and I began to pray for him. At first, it was with irritation, but I suddenly began imaging Jesus walking beside him and tenderly caring for him. I repented of my bad attitude towards him and of any contempt I had in my heart. I then asked God to do a work in me and change the way I saw Adam.
God is such an amazing father. From that day on, I liked Adam and his ridiculous behaviour never bothered me ever again. Before, whenever he would enter the shop, we would all cringe and look for something to do so that we didn’t have to be the one the deal with him. But now, I genuinely was pleased to see the young man and began to feel the heart Jesus had for him. Whether his actions were deliberate or because of his mental condition, I did not care, because the grace I was showing towards him had gone from dutiful to genuine.
Please don’t misunderstand – I am not implying that I showed more love towards him than the rest of my colleagues. I can only vouch for my change of heart because nobody discussed the matter with me, but I’m sure the others had him on their prayer list. If I am to be as truthful as possible, the very fact that they didn’t throw him into an empty box, cover him with *foam peanuts and then sit on it, is a miracle of grace in itself.
He still talked a load of nonsense. He still retuned goods that he had purchased the day before. He still wasted our time. He still slumped onto the counter and spoke in a monotone voice and he still made up the craziest stories one could imagine.
His most absurd story happened two months before I left to go on maternity leave.
I had been working on the first floor but was feeling bored because all the jobs I wanted to do were downstairs. Casper thought it best for me to be stationed there during my pregnancy because I was being a fussy first-time mum, complaining about safety and not wanting to strain myself lifting heavy items. The last thing he wanted was for me to be putting in lawsuits. Head Office would probably reject the litigation and make him pay for them out of his own wages because after all,
“We are a charity”.
I was not too bothered when I saw Adam mounting the stairs. He came straight to the counter and began asking me odd questions. Suddenly, he noticed the large bump protruding from my tummy.
“Oh, you are pregnant.”
There was a slight pause.
“I delivered a baby for a pregnant lady last week.”
This was going to be fun.
“Oh really?” I replied. “How did that happen?
“I was on the bus.”
“The bus?”
“Yup. She gave birth on the bus.”
“So, who else was there?”
“Just me. And a few others. But they asked me to do it.”
“Why did they ask you?”
“They knew I would be good at it.”
“Umm, okay. So, where did this pregnant woman she lie?”
“On the floor between the seats.”
“And how did you deliver the baby?”
“Just pulled it out. It was easy.”
“So how did you cut the cord Adam?”
I thought I had got him with this one. But with no hesitancy he replied,
“Scissors.”
“Scissors?”
“Yea. The bus driver had some in his pocket. He lent them to me.”
I looked at Adam and realised that the poor fellow truly believed that this event had taken place. I congratulated him on his bravery and decided it was best not to encourage him to fib any further.
A few weeks later, I saw him again and he seemed different. He began telling me a tale about how some guys had been bullying him, but this time the account sounded plausible. He told me that he felt so scared that he tried to remember things people had told him about Jesus. To my surprise he repeated something that I had told him a few days earlier about the importance of turning the Jesus for protection – the importance of not just using him as a magic wand, but rather, taking our relationship with God seriously. I was shocked that he had remembered it word for word.
“So, you were listening to me the other day when we had that chat.” I said.
“Yes.” he replied.
“Well, that’s great. Well done!”
“Thank you. The reason why I remember is because today I decided to take my medication. I usually forget. That’s why I am so weird. You see, I have Schizophrenia. It makes me say and do the stupidest of things. But I took my tablets today. And when those men started on me, I thought about how Jesus loves me and wants to be my friend.”
*The soft packing our suppliers used, which were edible white pieces of foam that resembled “Wotsits” / corn puffs.
