Chapters 1-5 Summary

Having already lost her mother, Caitlin Smith is shocked and numbed when her older brother Devon is killed in a random school shooting. When friends, neighbors and family offer to help she quite honestly says she doesn't need or want help. Because she has Asperger's Syndrome, she is challenged by her father and teachers to be more open to people and receive their loving, caring energy in the eternal give-and-take of life. Caitlin uses a chart of feelings that shows various emotional expressions linked to descriptive words, to help her get in touch with her own feelings and stay connected to reality. The death of her brother, though, pushes her back almost to the beginning of her self-healing work. She is angry with the world, although unable to identify the feeling and give it proper expression.

One aspect of her disassociation...