978-1572305441

A Trevor Mind Apart
Chapter 9
Trevor
Mobiles and “Miracles”
“It’s the strangest thing. He could stay in his crib for hours
staring at that mobile. It just hangs there, suspended over the crib—bits
of colored cardboard strung together with fishing line. I put it up there
one day just for fun, and now he looks at nothing else. What could be
so interesting about fishing line?”
Strange indeed for a toddler now three years old. Alice was a single
mother who worked as a pediatric nurse at our local children’s hospital.
She had a pretty good idea of what normal child development looks
like. She was here today to tell me about her son, Trevor. I knew Alice
from her work at the hospital and agreed to see Trevor because she was
worried he had autism.
“We just had a birthday party for him last week. I invited his grandparents
and some kids from the street. He doesn’t know any of them,
but I felt I just had to, to see what his response would be. Well, he ignored
everybody, even his grandparents. He just stared at the candles on
the birthday cake, and once he finished opening up his presents, he fled
to his room. I followed him up there and found him staring at that
damn mobile. I was so upset I cried. I had to amuse those other kids till
their moms came to pick them up. I have never been so embarrassed in
my life. What a nightmare that was.”
Trevor was lining up the Lego pieces across the table. He had curly
blond hair and was dressed in blue overalls with a bulky sweater underneath.
It was a cold and wintry day outside, and they had struggled to
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