“Uh-oh,” Harrison said softly. “I’m going to leave you guys to work this out, okay?”
I nodded tersely and heard the disconnect chime.
“Uncle Harry, I want those cars,” he screamed at the dead tablet. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “Don’t throw them away!”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” I murmured. I gently grasped Noah’s arm and tried to pull him into a hug, but he wrenched away with a feral cry. “Noah, come on.”
“No!”
And with that, my son dropped to the ground and launched into a screaming fit that seemed to come out of nowhere.
His therapist had mentioned possible bouts of dysregulation when his regular schedule was interrupted, and the trip was obviously a giant leap away from what he was used to. And here I thought the trip would be a fun distraction. I slid off the couch and onto the ground beside him while he wailed.
What now?
I tried to rub his back, to show that it was okay for him to cry it out, but he scooted away, still sobbing.
“Hey, Noah, come on,” I said after a solid three minutes of wailing. That couldn’t be good for him. Did I need to worry about him getting dehydrated? Or getting so worked up that he started vomiting? “We have a solution, right? We’re going to find a better car.”
“I…I…I wantthatcar!” Noah hiccuped, his eyes squeezed shut and his forehead resting on the carpet. “At Grandpa’s house!”
He turned to glare at me, and his face was bright red from crying. He couldn’t get a full inhale, which made me worried for his safety.
And then he started pounding the ground with his hands and feet. It was a meltdown unlike anything I’d experienced, and I felt completely out of my depth, not even sure what to try to get him to calm down.
“Hey, where’s Ariel? Maybe we need to look for her!”
I’d seen the kitten peeking around the corner, keeping her distance from the tantrum.
Noah ignored me.
There was only one person I could think of who might have a shot at getting through to him. She was off the clock until tomorrow morning, but I had to try.
I got up and grabbed my phone. Nina answered on the first ring. “Is everything okay?” A pause. “I can hear him.”
I closed my eyes as Noah leveled up his soundtrack. “No, we’re not even close to okay. I know this is outside your hours, but I can’t get him to calm down, and?—”
“I’m on my way,” she said and hung up. I felt a little like crying myself. Nothing about the situation had actually changed yet, but it was such a relief to know that I wasn’t in it alone. I went over to unlatch the door so she could come right in, and then I went back to Noah’s side.
He was still crying on the floor, and his breathing didn’t seem any better than it had been a minute ago, but at least it didn’t seem worse.
I didn’t realize Nina had come in until she was padding into the sitting area in sweats and a tank top with her hair in a high ponytail. I was used to seeing her in uniform—or that one time in a bikini—and seeing her in her hang-out clothing felt like I wasmeeting a new side of her. Ariel brushed up against her rescuer’s legs but skittered off when Noah let out a shout.
I stood up and nodded at her, then stepped aside, praying she’d step up and save the day, as usual.
Nina went over and sat down next to Noah silently. He downshifted the noise level as he recognized that she’d arrived, but he didn’t stop.
“Hey, my friend,” Nina said in a voice so soft that Noah was forced to tone it down even more. “I know you’re pretty upset right now, and that’s okay. It’s hard when things don’t turn out the way we want.”
It got a harumph out of him.
“When I get extra mad, and trust me, Idoget extra mad sometimes, I figured out that breathing helps me feel better. You’re breathing right now, because if youweren’t, uh-oh!” She laughed softly. “But the way I like to breathe is special, like this…”
She placed one hand on her chest and one on her belly and inhaled slowly, then exhaled.
“It’s sort of a test, to see if I can make my belly go out like a balloon when I breathe in. Watch me, to make sure that it does.”
Noah turned his head to look at Nina as she inhaled, his sobs quieting down even more as he got engaged in watching her.
