Free The Home Front by Margaret Vandenburg

to change things instantaneously and forever. At the very least, the Source promised to transform desperation into hope. She clicked on Autism, fully expecting the miracle that had eluded her thus far.
    Autism consists of superficial neurological impairment on the one hand and profoundly enhanced powers of intuition and cognition on the other.
    This spectrum of abilities proves that children on the spectrum are genetically predisposed to both autism and spirituality.
    By spirituality we mean heightened cognitive capacities, as follows:
    Contemporary culture overemphasizes left-brain functions, thereby undermining capacities related to the right brain, including intuition, spontaneity, creativity, and varieties of spiritual experience valued more highly in ancient and Eastern realms less infatuated with the cult of reason.
    Spirituality and transcendence are only possible when we strike a balance between right- and left-brain functioning, connecting the two hemispheres through heightened neural activity.
    Our souls are hungry for this balance.
    Children with autism choose to tolerate heightened brain activity in order to elevate humanity to higher levels of spiritual expression.
    The value of a spiritual view of autism is that it transforms limitation and helplessness into a sense of purpose and meaning.
    We should be listening to the voice of autism rather than silencing it.
    Autism is prophetic.
    Rose had never thought much about spirituality. When they were first married, she and Todd had gone to church a few times, mostly for show. His first commanding officer was a born-again Christian. But even the prospect of promotion paled in comparison with Sunday mornings in bed. The body was infinitely more important than the soul, especially in those early days before the kids were born. In retrospect, her spiritual indifference corroborated the idea that flesh and spirit had, in fact, been sundered by the same misguided cultural forces that pathologized her son. No one, least of all doctors and ministers, ever considered the possibility that we might be naturally healthy and intrinsically whole. The doctrine of genetic predisposition was no different than the theory of original sin. The focus was always on what was wrong rather than what was right.
    An overwhelming sense of relief washed over what must have been Rose’s soul. Without realizing it, she had blamed herself for her son’s condition. She was too protective a mother to do otherwise. Never mind the fact that Maureen was a perfectly normal kid. Her success with her daughter was more an accusation than a comfort, further evidence of her failure with Max. Within minutes, the Source assuaged her guilt. The website employed a kind of logical inevitability that appealed to Rose’s rational side, paving the way, step by step, for insights she had never thought possible. She, of all people, had been trapped in a web of negativity, treating autism as though it were an illness rather than an opportunity. By the time she logged off the site, hours later, she understood that no one was to blame for Max’s condition. No one was to blame for anything. Seen from an enlightened perspective, everything was as it should be in the universe.
    * * *
    The best place is Daddy’s closet. Everything is orderly. Everything smells the same, like leather, unless he buries his nose in the shirts. They all hang facing the same direction, smelling like laundry detergent. There are three flight suits and one dress uniform with gold buttons that shine even when the door is almost closed. He always leaves it open a crack because Daddy does. Otherwise someone might notice and find him in there.
    He isn’t hiding. He’s protecting himself. In the back, behind a row of sweaters, there’s room to sit all curled up in a ball, the way he wishes they’d let him sit at the dinner table. He never gets to do what he wants except in the closet. Or at night when they’re all asleep. He wants to be left