Chapter 1

“Hey ‘tard, why ya’ walkin’ so fast?”

“Yeah ‘tard, you sure walkin’ fast for a ‘tard!”

There were laughs and high-fives and snickers from the small group of boys gathered just outside the school, waiting for the late bus. They were there no doubt for detention, though not the boy who was the target of their cruelty.

The taunts were no different than the day before, nor the day, week, or month before that. Hurled by poorly mannered school children, Robert “Glee” Gleason had heard them each and every time. His mind worked differently than others, but, his hearing was perfect, and his comprehension crystal clear.

“Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” ¹

His mom had tearfully acknowledged his frustration, but all she could offer was the comfort of her arms, the warmth of her embrace, and the occasional move to a new city when her job permitted such.

Glee was different from the start. His parents initially took his slow learning and quiet behavior as just that, being a bit slow. But when he did not talk at the typical age they took him in for testing and it was diagnosed as an extremely rare form of autism.

He was somewhat of a savant with regard to learning. While other kids would play Little League or go camping with the Boy Scouts, he would devour books while simultaneously listening to music. Through testing and real-life experiences, it became obvious that he could hear, and understand, but he could not communicate verbally in regular sentences. Instead, Glee spoke in a form of allegory and metaphor, first simply, like the books he read, but then over time, it became far more robust as did his learning.

Glee’s father got frustrated early on, seeing his son as his failure as a parent at a genetic level, and he simply left one day when the boy was six. His mom had tried to integrate Glee into the school system, but by 12 it became painfully obvious that he was going to need to be home-schooled. As luck would have it, she found a brilliant young woman who had graduated college at 20 and was going to grad school part-time and needed work during the day.

Barb and Glee hit it off well. He found her fun and friendly, and she found his workarounds charming and challenging, especially as he got older and more well-versed in literature and song. Special accommodations needed to be made for testing purposes, as Glee’s answers would never do in a structured or regimented environment. Barb proposed to her university that Glee be the subject of her doctoral thesis.

“Glee is an extraordinary example of the sheer madness of autism. Here we have a young man who cannot communicate according to societal norms, yet, his capacity for quick calculation and rapid processing is phenomenal.”

“Ms. Wilson,” inquired one of the members of the approval board, “wouldn’t this subject be better suited for the mathematics department rather than philosophy?”

“Professor, it’s true that Glee’s prowess seems computer-like in his ability to rapidly come up with a response from the trillions of bits of data that he has stored in his mind, but it’s far more than that. A computer can pull facts, but Glee’s mind is far more attuned. His responses are often satiric, or contain subtle hints of his feelings at that moment, whether it’s sadness or feeling happy or mischievous. It’s this element of the human touch that--”

“Are you saying that this young man might provide some insight into the missing link between artificial intelligence and the human mind?” interrupted another board member.

“Yes. That’s exactly at the crux of my theory,” stated Barb.

“But he’s just a boy, a special needs child,” said the first one again, “and I cannot see the point in focusing--”

“Perhaps you’re simply not looking at the big picture, Charles?” stated the third member of the board, who also happened to be the department chair. “Perhaps what we’re dealing with here is not a negative aberration of the human mind, but an actual advancement, or evolution.”

“Professors...,” said Barb, trying to regain control of the interview, “I realize that what I’m proposing will involve quite a bit of medical testing as well as many, many hours of study and interaction, and it may well prove to be a fool’s errand. Allow me some latitude, please. I’ve convinced Glee’s mom and she’s already signed off on the medical. Allow me the time to delve deeply into this human mind, Glee’s mind, and maybe I’ll locate the human soul.”