Little Tornadoes

Little Tornadoes is a novelette written about a family in the 1990's faced with the diagnosis of autism given to their youngest boy, Charlie. Charlie's older sibling, Andy, does not wish to burden his family any more than he sees they already are, but can't help but begin to feel invisible to his parents. Andy's father distances himself from his family and his mother is forced to handle the challenges in front of them on her own. Andy wishes for what was. With life swirling around him, he has to choose his worth and place in his family. Families who have a child with autism know how unexpected and life changing such a diagnosis can be. This is a story about a family coping when their child is diagnosed with autism, and at a time when not much was known about the disability. In writing this fictional piece, the author, Melissa Lane, took snapshots from her personal experiences as the mother of a child with Asperger's Syndrome - a high-functioning form of autism. The author's exploration when creating Little Tornadoes was to imagine life from Andy's perspective as he is coming of age and discovering his own identity.