Camarillo

         
           My friend Dora was a volunteer at Camarillo State Mental Hospital when she was a teenager. It was a summer job she and a friend signed up for. 
           Dora is the youngest of six children. She has five sisters and one brother. Her sisters never invited her to any of the parties they went to, and were seldom nice to her. Until one day they invited her to see a band play at the local bowling alley. Dora was excited to finally be included.
            Things were going well. Dora dressed up for the occasion and for the first time in her life she felt like a grown up. She was talking to boys and making friends when a bus pulled into the parking lot. A group of kids got out and marched into the bowling alley. The kids were making a racket. It was a grand entrance that you couldn't help but notice.
           Hiiiii Dorrra! one of the kids said.
           Hiiiii Dorrra! said another.
           They were the special needs kids from Camarillo that Dora had been working with. At first Dora pretended not to know them. She was trying to be cool around her new friends. But one after another they came up to her and said hello. Hiiiii Dorrra!