Allen

How would you describe Allen? He was born to a mother that never admitted he had a father, in a small backwoods town somewhere in New Mexico. Why, many local folk thought it was either a miracle or a crime his mother could ever become pregnant. Their family welcomed the baby with indifference, as much as a penitence as it was blessing. 

The doctors and nurses knew when they first saw Allen he was different. His reactions were slow as was the shape of his tiny body. His hearing seemed nonexistent while his eyesight poor. He did not cry. The empty hope the doctor told his mother this might change in the upcoming days was clearly apparent.

Allen's childhood was a mix of dark rooms and locked doors. It was not that his mother or family didn't love him they just didn't know what to do with him. When it came time to go to school, it came at the insistence of the county.  Allen found himself swallowed by special services, the mentally challenged and the back rooms of school.

Allen's teachers, most of them, were well intentioned and poorly trained. Their jobs became care givers, watchers and guards. The time Allen spent gave his mother the break she needed to be away from what she had created. But, not enough. She hung herself thirty minutes before Allen was to come home just a few days before his twelve birthday. Soon after, Allen's grandparents disappeared leaving him at school. It wasn't until the next day when the school bus found him, in the exact same spot as they left him, did the system know of its new opportunity for failure in this new ward of the state.

After the well caring legal system's wheels turned, Allen was deposited in the New Mexico State School for the Blind. More well intentioned and better trained caregivers and a chance for near normal life. Allen was never a problem. No emotion, just submission. In all cases, Allen was there physically but no one could say where Allen was mentally. His IQ scores were minimal. His reactions slow but calculated and predictable. Allen's interactions with others, whether it be fellow students or teachers were indifferent. It wasn't until the introduction to Jake did the appearance of Allen's life change.

Jake was a mutt, a service dog with an intolerable record with one last chance. His trainers couldn't seem to control his boundless energy and his disregard for authority. Why he lasted this long was anybody's guess. Jake wasn't suppose to be placed the day he came to the state school. It was more an introduction to the environment as it was an exercise. Since that day, Jake has never left Allen's side.

As Jake entered Allen's building something changed in Jake. He became alert, purposeful and focused. He drug his trainer up the stairs and to Allen's common room. Jake went straight to Allen and fell by his side in total dedication without a move, notion or nod from Allen. Any attempts to sway Jake differently only resulted in bare tooth warnings of disapproval. Jake stayed, without harness or lead. Allen's hand found Jake's head with a soft pat and for the first time in anyone's memory Allen expressed.

Training classes for the two were unnecessary but required. Jake did everything required without command. Allen showed no requirement. Actions and reactions were done as if it were scripted and rehearsed endlessly. The two moved as one. Short days passed and word spread. Allen and Jake found themselves on a bus bound for study at the local University. 

Left in a borrowed lab, alone Allen and Jake sat waiting for the next examiner. On a table, a rubics cube. Jake stretched up, grabbed it in his mouth and handed it to Allen. Within seconds, the cube was solved. Jake returned it to the table. No one noticed. An hour later, Allen and Jake were in another borrowed lab. On the white board was an incomplete equation trying to solve how two compounds could terminate a diseased unwanted cell. Jake found and gave Allen a marker. Without hesitation, Allen revealed the solution. Again, Jake returned the marker and no one noticed. At the end of the day, Allen's and Jake's examination proved no results, just an unexplained cohesive bound between man and dog. Allen slow, nearly deaf and blind. Jake a mutt. 

The next day, when the occupant of the first lab returned, he noticed his cube solved. Not thinking anything or not remembering solving it he put it aside and went to work. Two days later, when the occupant of the second lab returned, the world as we know it changed. Without first noticing, she picked up crumbled papers she brought with her and a marker and examined the board. Impossible. She looked again. Calculated. Impossible. But how? Who? Quickly the room filled no one admitting or recognizing the handwriting. Impossible. Simply written the equation solved an age old dilemma, plaguing and killing mankind for centuries. The search as well as the explanation began. The brilliant female occupant of the lab insisted to a point of heroic proportion she did not author the answer. Everyone was questioned, time tables as well as security tapes were examined but no answers were found only the obvious exposed and one coincidence. In one lab, a solved rubics cube and a second, the answer to saving life. The only connection, a slow, nearly blind, deaf orphan and his service dog.

A coincidence yes, the answer no. The University went on to publish its findings and the world changed. Mankind had one less enemy and one unknown friend. The brilliant female occupant refused to take credit and the willing University took credit as a group endeavor. She vowed to find the author and that is how she walked into Allen's and Jake's building at the state school. No one else would even consider or else investigate the obvious. How could it be? She found the two sitting by the window, silent. When she approached, Jake turned his head and wagged his tail. Again, no one noticed. This was the first time since joining Allen, Jake had ever shown emotion to anyone else other than Allen. She knelt so she would be on eye level with both Allen and Jake and introduced herself. No response. Allen's eyes were not empty but occupied with what seemed to be a distant thought. She patted Jake's head and it was with that she heard a distant voice in her soul. All at once, everything was obvious, no questions remained, Allen was the answer. Her ability to respond and her desire to shout and tell the world was calmed. She willingly remained silent, returned to the University lab and succeeded numerous times to make the world a better place to live but could never reveal the answer. 

Allen and Jake still live at the state school. Life there is mundane with exceptions. On occasions, very small, but extraordinary things happen. The television in the common room starts working again, a nurse gets over a cold in matter of minutes instead of days and once, just once Jake wag's his tail.