I'm Aiden Altman, adopted son of Jacob and Beatrice Altman and only sibling of my adopted one year younger sister LuAnn. Jacob, Beatrice and LuAnn are the smartest people that I know. LuAnn - who is of mixed Vietnamese and Dutch ancestry - and I were both adopted by the Altmans when we were just a month old.
Jacob and Beatrice are of average size and looks. Beatrice has a PhD in psychology, is a university professor and, fortunately for me, one of the experts in the world in cognitive development. It is because of her expertise and loving care as my mother that I am one of the most socially adept men with Asperger's in the U. S.
Jacob has a Masters in Electrical Engineering and an MBA and is the CEO and majority stockholder of ZYX Corporation. ZYX is the leading developer and manufacturer of proximity detectors, and related high tech equipment, in the United States.
My parents are wealthy.
LuAnn graduated summa cum laude with a degree in electrical engineering from Cal Tech and works as the director of research for ZYX. She did not get that position by nepotism since virtually every hi-tech company in the country tried to hire her. She is the most beautiful woman, inside and out, and the kindest person, that I have ever seen in my life. No one would ever mistake us for siblings, however, not just because she is half Vietnamese but also because she is five feet two inches, 105 pounds, and I am six feet five inches, 280 pounds, with blond hair.
While the other three members of my family are legitimate geniuses, I am not, in part because I have Asperger's and some learning issues. I am unusual for someone with that Syndrome, however, since I am gifted mathematically, and verbally a virtual idiot. I barely graduated High School since except for math, where I got all As, I got virtually all Ds in all of my High School classes. I would have flunked most of those classes without help from LuAnn and my Mom. I took the SATs despite no possibility that I could get into college. I was so discouraged after finishing the verbal section that I left without doing the writing sample. Not surprisingly, I got a perfect 800 on the math part but a pathetic 350 on the verbal part.
I also work for ZYX in the accounting department. While I definitely got the job because of nepotism I have subsequently earned it since I can analyze numbers better than anyone else in the department and have caught many errors in financial documents that could have caused major problems of all types for ZYX if they had not been detected. My Dad told me that the head of accounting considers me a valuable member of the team, and no important financial document is ever distributed outside of accounting unless I review it first.
My family was about the most loving that I have ever heard of. From the time that I was a toddler I had a strong sense of loyalty to and protectiveness of all three of them and would do anything for them. I don't know if those characteristics were related to my Asperger's, but my Mom thinks that they are, and she's the expert. Since I was always big and strong for my age, no one ever picked on LuAnn at school - or if they did they were sorry, big time!
Our parents gave LuAnn and I good values and a positive outlook on life. One thing that they always emphasized was addressing problems head on. No looking the other way, hoping for the best, or working around a problem. Both LuAnn and I live our lives with that as one of our guiding principles.
*****
I might have been a professional athlete except for a lack of self-control in some situations, especially where my overprotectiveness of LuAnn was concerned. The prime example occurred during my sophomore year in High School.
At the time I was six feet four inches, 260 pounds, with just 8% body fat. I was not only the starting left tackle on the football team, but only one of two sophomores to make All-State. The wrestling coach talked me into wrestling after football season since he needed a heavyweight. Even though I didn't have much technique I won eight of my first ten matches, four by pins, against older and much more experienced wrestlers, primarily because I had a significant strength advantage over all of them.
LuAnn always attended my meets and cheered me on from the first row of the bleachers since we were as close as a brother and sister could be. Even though I was a year older, by then she was a year ahead of me in school since she skipped two grades because of how smart she was.
The guy I was wrestling, Chad Chambers, was a senior and the runner-up in the State championship tournament the year before. The team match was tight and would likely be decided by the heavyweight bout. Shortly before my match was supposed to start I saw Chambers go over to LuAnn and say something to her. It was obvious what he said distressed her. I went over to her and saw a tear in her eye.
"What did he say, LuAnn?" I asked.
Trying to calm me down she gave a fake laugh and said "Nothing, Aiden, just normal scholastic trash talk." Although because of my Asperger's I'm not perceptive, I knew that wasn't true - she just didn't want me to do something extreme. It didn't work.
As soon as the match started I bull-rushed Chambers off the mat. I didn't stop with the whistle, however. I got him in a choke hold - illegal in wrestling - and wouldn't let go even when it was clear that he had passed out. I was so angry that I apparently had zoned out. I was told later that it took both coaches, the referee, and the two light heavyweights to detach me from Chambers; I likely would have killed him if they hadn't.
One thing I do remember is LuAnn coming over to me as I sat at the edge of the mat while Chalmers was being dragged away from me and the coaches were holding my arms. She held my face between her tiny hands, kissed me on the forehead, and told me "It's OK, best brother. Just calm down. I've got your back."
The EMTs, and the police, were called. My wrestling coach and LuAnn talked the cops into letting her ride with me in the back of the police car. Since the cops were about half my size and they saw what I had done to Chambers I think that they were happy to have LuAnn's stabilizing influence for our trip.
I spent the night in jail. Not surprisingly I was in a bad mood. One of the other "guests," either not the smartest guy in the world or someone with a highly over-inflated opinion of his toughness, or both, tried to bully me and made some gross comments about my "relationship" with my mother. I smashed him against the bars, knocking him out cold. Fortunately the fact that he put his hands on me first was caught on the jail cameras, and he was a hated regular "guest," so nothing ever came of that.
The next day I was bailed out by my parents and LuAnn. My parents didn't really get mad at me, but they were concerned. When we got home LuAnn sat on my lap in the living room. "Aiden, you're my hero, and I know that you were protecting my honor. I love you for it. But you don't need to do that anymore; we're not on the playground now. I'm a big girl. It would have been better for you to just beat that asshole in the match rather than almost kill him."
She kissed me on the forehead then continued, pinching my cheeks with one of her little hands. "Promise me you won't do something like that again, big brother. Promise me."
"I promise, LuAnn. But what if someone is going to physically hurt you?" I asked.
She got a big smile on her face. "Then you can knock his block off - but no fighting over just words, OK? Promise?"
"I promise, LuAnn," I replied with my own smile.
"All right. Then let's go bowling," she giggled. Bowling was one of her favorite activities, probably because she could overcome my strength with her finesse. She gleefully beat my ass.
I don't know what the details were but the charges against me for assaulting Chambers were dropped. I don't know whether my father's influence or money was responsible, or the fact that my father was represented by the best bad-ass law firm in the city. Unfortunately, however, the athletic conference my High School was in banned me from wrestling forever, and from all competitive sports for a year. During that year I developed other interests, including film, chess, weightlifting, and cross-training. Although I became a physical fitness nut - which has continued to this day (I still have only 8% body fat) - I never returned to competitive athletics.
One thing that that wrestling match did was give me real street cred. While I was always so big for my age that I was rarely picked on, after that incident no one who knew me, ever, ever, messed with me - or LuAnn. Actually for LuAnn it was a two edged sword. Creeps stayed away from her for fear of me beating the shit out of them, but some guys she might like to have dated probably didn't want to ask her out for fear of offending her and incurring my wrath. She never complained, but it bothered me.
One day I said to LuAnn "I'm sorry that guys are afraid to ask you out because they're afraid of me. Do you want me to transfer to another school?"
She first looked angry; then comforting. "Aiden, unless I find another guy like you - the perfect guy - I don't care if I have dates every weekend. Don't you dare transfer - I want to be with you as much as I can be."
Then she rose on her toes, pulled me down by the neck, and kissed me, with a tear in her eye.