And Joshua flipped his lid

Intended for children ages 11 to 14 years old.

It was a cold day on Thursday, the rain wouldn’t let up, the wind whistled around the schoolyard, and Joshua flipped his lid.

Joshua is one of my cousins. His younger brother, Jake, is in my class.

Josh had seemed different for while now. Sometimes he would be jumping all over the place, talking twenty to the dozen, and doing all sorts of stupid things. Other times he would be really sulky and just sit in the back of class complaining of aches and pains. Jake said his parents were always talking quietly together and taking Josh to the doctors.

"They say he is having some tests done," said Jake at lunchtime.

"I thought it was normal for teenagers to be pains?" I opened up my sandwich. Hundreds-and-Thousands in chocolate spread, you could always tell when Mum was away on business and Dad was looking after us. "My big sister is like it all the time."

"This is different though," Jake looked worried. "I overheard Mum say something about being I’ll when she was younger."

We didn’t hear the fight as our classroom is at the other end of school from Joshua’s, but we knew something was up when an ambulance and cops drove into the car park.

We were all looking out the window when Miss Wolesley came into the room and whispered into Mr. Dean’s ear and came over to Jake.

"Jake," she looked pale. "You need to come with me. Your Mum and Dad are on their way."

As Jake stood up to leave our eyes met. He looked petrified.

It was all around the school by home time. Apparently Joshua’s teacher was trying to get him to sit down and Joshua flipped his lid. He actually thumped Mr. Williams and started screaming and yelling all sorts of stuff. All the kids were saying that he had gone completely nuts.

When I got home Dad was sitting at the dining table with my sister. They both looked at me when I came in and I could see Shelly had been crying.

"What’s wrong? Is it Josh?"

Dad got up and put his arm around my shoulder. "Joshua is not… well." Shelly started crying again.

"He is going to be alright isn’t he?"

"Sure he is," Dad squeezed my arm. "He has an illness called Bipolar Disorder that gives him bad mood swings.

"Is this what Auntie Joan had when she was younger?"

Dad raised his eyebrows.

"…Jake said he heard something."

He inhaled deeply. "Yes, when your Auntie was Josh’s age she had the same thing." He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "It is something that can be passed on to her children."

"But Auntie Joan seems fine."

"And so will Josh be once he gets the proper treatment." Dad smiled a tight smile. "They will all need our total support."

Shelly and I looked at each other. "Of course!" I said, "They are family after all."


© Mark Ashton 2004