Finding Petey
Petey, by Ben Mikaelsen, is the story of a man who grew up with cerebral palsy, but was misdiagnosed an idiot. Petey had a very long tough life and most people believed he could not think, but some people saw past his cerebral palsy and helped make his life special.
First,there was Esteban, a small 17 year old Mexican boy. Petey was already eight years old and had been living at the infants ward for a long time when Estaban started working there. Their relationship started when one day as Estaban walked by eating a Hershey Bar, and he noticed Petey’s eyes following the chocolate. Esteban gave Petey a piece of the Hershey bar and he loved it. Petey got a little piece of chocolate from Estaban every day after that. Esteban asked the nurse what was wrong with Petey and she replied, “he's an idiot.” Later, Estaban decided to stop giving chocolate to Petey until he found ways to ask for it. A little bit later when Esteban was leaving the ward, he saw Petey jerk his head to say yes. The next day Estaban failed to show up and he never came again. Esteban was the first person to look past Petey’s cerebral palsy.
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It was miserable for Petey until Calvin showed up. Calvin Anders was a nine year old boy with clubbed feet and was mildly retarded. Calvin and Petey quickly became best friends. Calvin was one of the only people that ever really understood Petey; he even got Petey to answer yes and no questions. Calvin and Petey would stay up in the night talking and they even played cowboy. They were friends for many years, until one day after after fifty or more years of being together in the men’s ward and being best friends, they were put in separate nursing homes. Petey couldn’t believe it; they had been through so much together both happiness and sadness of losing those that cared about