Here Comes the Sun

by Tom Brauner

The little boy stares at the little girl who is in the middle of a 30-minute tantrum. She is being held gently by a young classroom aide, while the boy, Robbie, rocks back and forth slowly on his carpet square, watching. He is holding a small, circular piece of paper. Finally, during a lull in the little girl’s mournful cries, he gets up and walks over to her, tentatively offering her the yellow circle. “Here comes the sun,” he says. “It’s all right.” She looks at it and almost smiles, making the briefest of eye contact with him.

The little boy is three and had been at the preschool for neurodivergent children for a few months. He expresses himself through Beatles’ lyrics—and then only when he or another child is experiencing an emotionally fraught situation. The little girl, Katie, is not yet three and always starts to tantrum the moment her grandfather leaves her off in the morning.

***

Who can say how two people find one another, the alchemy required to create a bond? Is it the way someone smells, or how they look at you, or what they say the first time you meet them? Can communication through Beatles’ lyrics be the way you find “your person?”

***

Katie’s grandfather is dropping her off at school. He is called “Pop-Pop” by both children and staff alike. Katie’s chin begins to quiver, the first sign of her ritual morning tantrum. Robbie is standing just inside the door, watching in his quiet, intense way. Reaching out, he says, “I want to hold your hand.” Katie looks at Pop-Pop, who nods at her. She takes Robbie’s hand. The two walk over to the table, where they sit side by side and start to draw. This will be the first morning that Katie does not need to tantrum.

***

Robbie is having a very hard day. He has cried several times when he cannot fit the airplane puzzle pieces together in the way he’s determined they must go. After the third unsuccessful attempt, he throws the container of wooden pieces into the air. The puzzle parts and Robbie drop to the floor simultaneously. He cries inconsolably. Katie has been working on something while observing his distressing morning. Wordlessly, she gets up and hands him a yellow circle. This has become their code for “I am here when you are upset.” Robbie takes her offering and, wiping his tears, walks over to his cubby where he places the sun on top of several others. Katie picks up the strewn puzzle pieces and puts them back in their container, ready for him to try another day.

***

Katie and Robbie are on a play date in the park, with Pop-Pop as chaperone. Katie is riding the merry-go-round, while Robbie watches. He does not like the spinning motion of the ride. “She’s got a ticket to ride,” Robbie says to Pop-Pop, who laughs. “She sure does.” Katie waves at Robbie and her grandfather as she flashes by them.

“You think you’d ever want to try riding it?” asks Pop-Pop. Robbie shakes his head with a definitive “no.”

A few weeks later, Robbie will join Katie aboard the merry-go-round, and she will propel it forward very slowly until Robbie gets comfortable. Pop-Pop hears the little boy say to Katie, “Good Day, Sunshine.”

***

It is graduation day in the school’s cozy, streamer-filled play yard. Parents and siblings sit in white folding chairs for the occasion. Pop-Pop sits proudly in the first row. Each child walks out to “Pomp and Circumstance” playing on a small boombox, the teachers and staff following behind them. Some of the children spot family members and run over to them. Katie and Robbie do not. Both are now about to turn five and they walk solemnly together to their assigned seats. Robbie long ago stopped communicating solely through Beatles’ lyrics and Katie has not had a tantrum at drop-off since the day Robbie first held her hand. Of course, they are seated side by side.

The children can give a short speech on what they have learned while at the school. When it is Katie’s turn she says, “I learned to read and to do numbers” and, looking at Robbie, she adds, “And I learned how to make friends.” When it is Robbie’s turn, he takes a folded yellow circle of paper from his pocket and reads, “When I first came here, I was scared. I didn’t really talk. I was bad at puzzles, but then I got better.” Looking directly at Katie, he says, “Mostly, I learned that my friends could help me, if I let them.” Then he looks out at the audience. “It’s been a Long and Winding Road.” The adults laugh and clap for the little boy who can still find the right Beatle’s song when necessary. Robbie sits down and hands his last yellow sun to Katie. She clutches it to her chest and, leaning against him, starts to cry.

***

Who can say how two people stay connected despite the passage of time, how their lives remain invisibly intertwined? Katie and Robbie do not go to the same school after graduation, and this makes them both sad. They will eventually make new friends, while understanding that those relationships will never have the same quality as theirs—theirs was the first. Years will pass before they find each other again.