Bang, bang bang came the sound from the closed door.
"Jacob Allen, why in the world is this door locked! It is time to get up. You are going to be late for school if you do not get up and get dressed this instant. And if you wait much longer, you will be going on an empty stomach!"
Oh man, mom sounds really mad. I better get going, Jake thought.
But why was the door locked? Jacob never locks his door. Everything seems so very strange.
Jacob got dressed in a rush, trying not to incur the wrath of his mother.
He rushed down the stairs and nearly ran into his mother at the bottom.
"Where's the fire, Jake?" Leeanne asked, startled.
Jacob was never this abrupt and in a hurry. Jacob was a very laid back kid as long as you didn’t mess with his routine. He thrived on routine, as most autistic children do, and Jacob's was very structured, very rigid. That is why the locked door and the difficulty waking up seemed so out of place to Leeanne.
"What's for breakfast?"
Leeanne's jaw popped open and in that instant Jacob knew why. He had just spoken to his mother for the first time in, well, ever.
"Jacob?" Leeanne mouthed, clearly very confused by what was happening.
"Hi, mom," Jacob smiled.
"Oh! Oh!" Leanne was shouting enough to wake the dead, and her husband came running out of his home office.
"What in the world is going on in here?" Jeremy Baxter asked his wife.
"It's happened! The miracle we have been hoping and praying for! All of the thousands of dollars we have spent and everyone telling us we were crazy, we needed to just accept things for what they were. It has happened. Jacob just asked me what was for breakfast, and then said 'hi mom!'"
Jeremy looked skeptically at his wife. "Is it possible?"
"Dad?" Jacob said hesitantly, as much trying out his new voice as to get his father’s attention.
Jeremy and Leeanne converged on their once-silent child, reveling in this miraculous moment, and savoring it for all it was worth.
It was now that their lives would begin. And Jacob's too. Because he had a purpose, a destiny to fulfill. And he had a voice. He felt different, stronger somehow.
He really had no idea what life had in store for him or what the future held. But he did know that he would embrace it. He would live his life and finally be free.