The Torch

Ding dong. What do you SAAAAAAAAY??

Ding dong. He’s nonverbal. He’s autistic.

Ding dong. He can’t talk. He won’t say it.

Ding dong. Sorry, he just wants to come in your house, he doesn’t understand why everyone keeps closing the door.

When I was little, I’d turn over stones to see the wriggling worms and ants teeming just under the surface. It became an obsession: stone pavers, garden stones, smooth or cracked, colorful or dull, sparkly or pitted, each stone carried the potential of having an entire ecosystem hidden underneath. And I thought I was the luckiest girl alive to know this little secret.