Adrian surprises us.

Adrian is our middle son, in his 40s, and a person with autism. His communication skills are limited. He will talk in simple sentences if he has to. He prefers phrases or even single words.

Today, a Sunday, is the day we pick him up at his group home and take him out from 2 00 pm to 7 00 pm. And it was the day he gets to spend $20.00, usually at a local Value Village store, a charity shop. In the past we have gone to one of three Value Village stores we know in Ottawa: the Bank Street one in South-Central Ottawa, the Merrivale one, near his home, and the Kanata one, near our home. Today we have him the choice of which of these three we should go to. His surprising answer was "Exit 115."

We took out the street map book of Ottawa, and located Exit 115 on the highway that crosses through the city, Highway 417. That exit was St. Laurent Boulevard. So off we went to the exit. We turned North on St. Laurent since that was the direction to the St. Laurent Shopping Centre. This was on the left as we drove on St. Laurent, but Adrian pointed to the right at the upcoming traffic lights. So we turned right. He pointed once more to turn right at the next lights. Shortly thereafter, on the left, was the Cyrwille Value Village. His personal GPS had become ours to get us there.