Skychild

By: Suzanne Morris

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Synopsis: At two, Ian Maguire is both a beautiful and very gifted little boy, a child that his parents, Monica and Forrest, are justifiably proud of. But Ian is special in other ways. Increasingly unresponsive to the world around him, he is content only when alone, rocking in his crib or playing obsessively with his favorite toy, a pocket mirror of his mother's. Forrest, preoccupied with his high- pressure job, refuses to see anything unusual about his son's behavior, and retreats ever further into his work. Monica, more anxious than even she will admit, finally takes Ian to be tested. The results are shattering. Her son, the doctors tell her, is probably autistic, certainly psychotic, and there is little hope of improvement. Confirming her deepest fears, the diagnosis plunges Monica into an agony of uncertainty and guilt. Is Ian's sickness the consequence of Forrest's remoteness, or must she now reveal a secret about Ian's birth she has kept even from her husband? Confused, her marriage coming apart, Monica sets out to find her own answers. She takes Ian to Galveston Bay, to a place she knew as a child, and, in a startling climax, she discovers the love and understanding they have both needed so badly.