House Rules

Kids with Asperger’s, she said, have senses we can’t even imagine. We filter out sounds and sights that are constantly barraging their brains which is why sometimes it seems like they are off in their own little world. They're not, she said. They’re in our world but they are more engaged in it than we’ll ever be.

I went home that day and I looked up plant death on the Internet. As it turned out, plants under stress emit ethylene gas and scientists in Germany have created a device that measures the energy of those molecules as vibrations – or sound.

Now I wonder if it gets tiring, bearing witness to the last gasp of nature. If it’s not only plants my son hears but the gnash of an angry ocean. A shy sunrise. A breaking heart.

- House Rules
By Jodi Picoult

Picoult's writing continues to take my breath away.... but I can't tell Jacob in the story that. He is an Aspie and wouldn't understand it.