A Thin Place

Jack Peterson

Description

While witnessing unprecedented increases in autism among young children, an internationally revered medical doctor finds his retirement troublesome. Dr. Jeremiah Trent is convinced that a mercury-based vaccine preservative, similar to one he helped create while a young university chemist, could be the catalyst behind a rampantly spreading malady that had no recorded history before 1945.

Trent moves forward quickly, forming an unlikely alliance with irascible former U.S. Congressman Samuel L. Crockett who has an autistic grandson. Together, they unearth hidden agendas in the nation's capital that they are convinced are being orchestrated by outsiders seeking profits before safety. When Trent uncovers an incriminating internal drug company memo that supports his theory, his unsolved murder forces Crockett to turn to his daughter Elena, an attorney and the mother of his autistic grandson, to help him find the missing memo and finish what Trent started.

As Elena develops a national grassroots autism awareness campaign, fueled in part by the heartwarming story of a young autistic savant with da Vinci-like skills, she witnesses a groundswell of support across the nation as her father continues his battles with the federal bureaucracy. With hidden barriers and roadblocks at every turn, father and daughter use the persistent setbacks as added fuel to continue their quest, battling inch by inch across a perpetual sea of heartbreak toward the bridge of justice. The world's children are waiting on the other side.

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 10 octobre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780983153610
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A THIN PLACE

a novel by...

J ACK PETERSON



R a e-J a k P u b l i s h i n g
Newport Beach, California
Published by Rae-Jak Books
A division of Rae-Jak Publishing, LLC
220 Newport Center Drive, Suite 11
Newport Beach, CA 92660
The novel A Thin Place is fiction. Historical events, quotes, or other information herein as it relates to private citizens or public officials used in the course of writing this novel have not been altered in any way. Every effort has been made to ensure complete accuracy. Information presented as fact within the novel was gathered from more than one source and obtained from either published documents, online news sources, or other public records. Any resemblance of fictional characters in this novel to other people, living or diseased, is purely coincidental.
Published in E-Book format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-9831536-1-0
Library of Congress Control Number:
2010918803
Copyright © 2011 by Jack Peterson
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
1 st Printing January, 2011
2 nd Printing September, 2013
To some very special people…..
A writer writes….a reader reads, but a proofreader actually has responsibilities . Without them, a professional writer’s life would be miserable, maybe even non-existent. Many readers would likely stopping short of completing what may or may not have been a good read simply because of a shoddy effort.
While researching and scripting A Thin Place , I had allies. The first was Saul Turteltaub. He not only encouraged me to write this story, he offered many suggestions once the project was underway. Then there was the lovely Deborah McCoy. Despite being one of the busiest people on the planet, she found time to lend a hand by proofing pages, most of the time late into the evening after an exhaustive day. The final test was Ms. Joan Schon’s responsibility. She proofread the proofreaders. Without my three allies, I am certain this novel would still be in the draft stage and not just days away from the second printing.
On a more personal note, I want to thank my daughter, Brittini Rae. Her tenacity and willingness to stand up to a very stubborn father when she believed she was right added an artistic polish to this endeavor that simply would not have been possible without her input.
To everyone above……I love you all!
J
From the author…
This is the second printing of A Thin Place, a novel inspired by a true story of a four-year-old autistic girl with a talent so unique that more than one art historian claimed that her sketches could easily be mistaken to have come from the hand of Leonardo da Vinci. This story was nothing more than an embryonic idea for a very long time because I knew that creating such a novel required my having a far better understanding of the intricacies of autism. That research took over two years and led the novel’s storyline down a far different trail than originally intended.
I have made every effort to ensure that A Thin Place is historically accurate as it relates to autism. All information regarding the myriad and controversial issues surrounding the malady (including the use of mercury as a preservative in vaccines) and treatments for autism come from publicly available documents. You will find that the novel’s fictional characters frequently surrounded by recognizable public personalities and elected officials. Wherever possible, real events and documentable statements are used to support the plot and have not been distorted in any way.
The word autism was first coined by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1911. Over thirty years later, early-childhood development pioneers Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger each published separate and uniquely different studies on autism. It should be noted that prior their academic publications (despite psychology books dating back hundreds of years) no recorded history of anything resembling what we now commonly call autism existed.
Autism rates have skyrocketed throughout the world and myriad theories regarding the cause of those tragic increases are never one-sided conversations. Unfortunately, for most of us, our general understanding of autism has not kept up with the vast medical research and information available today. Children with autism are not unruly youngsters who simply choose misbehave. Fortunately, unlike when the malady was discovered, the children are no longer swept off to an asylum. More often than not, autistic children lead happy and productive lives when provided appropriate support. Truth is, many children remain without the luxury of proper care.
An intense debate still rages over the correlation between the rising autism prevalence in the U.S. and the current mandated vaccine schedule. At the center of the debate has been (and still is) the use of a mercury-based vaccine preservative formula that until recently was used in many childhood vaccines (it remains in most flu vaccines). Those claiming such a correlation between vaccines and the skyrocketing autism rates in the last twenty years often cite that the United States has the most aggressive mandated vaccine schedule for children in the Western world, a number that is double the average of most countries. It is a schedule that has grown dramatically over the years (25 additional vaccines added since 1990). An interesting aside is that all countries with lower vaccine mandates than those in the U.S. have significantly lower autism rates. The facts are that in 1983 the U.S. vaccine schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control for children aged five and under was 1o. That number has nearly tripled as of this writing to the recommended 36 vaccinations for the same age group and some of those vaccines, flu for example, still contain mercury preservatives.
Written first to entertain and second to educate, the treatment and causation theories concerning autism are included to support the storyline. A conscious effort was made to ensure the reader does not feel as if they are reading a textbook and to do it without compromising historical accuracy. I believe we have done that and there is a material benefit. When you turn the last page, your grasp of the intricacies and controversies surrounding autism will likely be higher than 99% of the world’s population!
Acknowledgments:
There are far too many autism support groups in the United States to mention them all here. I have listed a few such organizations below. These groups and many others like them provide irreplaceable and phenomenal support for autistic children and their parents and anybody else willing to get out of their comfort zone and listen.
Statistics regarding the increases in autism rates in our nation continue to be alarming. Current estimates are that 1 in 98 newborns in the USA will eventually be diagnosed with some form of autism. Pervasive developmental disorders can affect anyone and the economic impact autism creates for families around the world demands we maintain our sense of urgency for even more research and statistical information. We need better treatments, preventative measures and, with God’s help, to find a cure.
Below are just a few of myriad available websites and organizations that can help educate us all about the challenges autism presents for the world’s autistic children. We can no longer look the other way. We all need to do our part!
www.tacanow.org
www.safeminds.org
www.autismspeaks.org
www.autism.com (Autism Research Institute)
P rologue
August 21, 1995
University of California School of Art
Los Angeles, California
Completely mesmerized by a sketch unceremoniously placed on her desk only a moment earlier, Dr. Deborah McCoy could feel her heartbeat increasing by the second and she knew why. Today marked the eighty-fourth anniversary that every newspaper around the globe spread the shocking news that thieves had taken the world’s most famous painting. Two years later, authorities recovered Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa hidden in an apartment a few blocks away from its rightful home at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Despite the passing years, rumors persisted that a few of the master’s less significant works had been missing since the heist. While such speculations were never confirmed nor denied by the museum, McCoy was certain she may have just been handed a piece of history that could possibly validate the suspicions still held by many of the world’s art historians and scholars.
McCoy sat motionless, still staring at the sketch, but the drawing on her desk wasn’t her only distraction. Paying attention to business was never easy when Dr. James Lymburner was around. She looked up at her friend. Spending any amount of time with him was always a pleasant break from her professional life. They both shared the same passion for Leonardo da Vinci for over thirty years and, schedules permitting, they spent much of their leisure time together exploring a mutual fascination with the artist but this time it was different. What Lymburner just unceremoniously dropped on her desk had no precedent. The sketch looked eerily familiar. Her rational mind was telling her not to believe, but her heart was offering an opposing opinion. She had to be sure. She turned away from the sketch, finally breaking her prolonged silence. “Where did you get this?” she demanded.
Lymburner stopped his annoying pacing from one side of her office to the other and sat on a chair directly in front of her desk. McCoy felt her question was sufficiently straightforward but the look on Lymburner’s face told her there would be no simple answer. Lymburner took a deep breath and exhaled without answering. Patience having never been one her virtues, McCoy pounced, her voice even more emphatic. “James?”
“Let’s just say you wouldn’t believe me if I told you and leave it at that,” he acquiesced.
Temporarily resisting any response, McCoy shook