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For the Horse Boy

In a valley that is 12,000 feet above sea level
Near the border of Mongolia and Russia
A four year old autistic boy pointed
Rowan named the reindeer rode by the shaman.
Autistic children do not point
They may speak, but only in echoes
Nor do they name, anything
Rowan named the reindeer
My son pointed at a ferris wheel and called it a ride
He will call a dog a dog a hippo a pig and can count to thirty

After the eagle feathered shaman of the Dukha Tribe received him
In a smoke filled ger hut
Rowan pointed
Rowan played with other children for the first time
In his life in a field in Mongolia
My son waits his turn to go down the slide at the playground
My son brings a footstool into the kitchen so he can get to the Tootsie Pops
on top of the refrigerator
The red ones
Always the red ones
They're the only solid food he will eat
He is seven years old

After riding on horseback for days
Using his mumbled voice that was clear in its intent
with his father and mother watching with shock, with pride
Rowan named the reindeer
Rowan sorts his toy animals by species in boxes in his bedroom
My son lines up his toys on a bookcase
Elmo
Junior Asparagus
Larry the Cucumber
Bob the Tomato
An Eddie George stacking doll

Rowan ran away from his father to his neighbor's farm in Texas
Where a mare named Betsy immediately bowed her head in submission to him
Animals connect to the light around him
My son will kiss his Grandmother's doberman on the head
But will run from larger dogs that bark
Rowan pointed
Rowan spoke for the first time when riding on Betsy with his father
My son makes sounds at all hours of the day and night
He does not converse with you

Rowan rode for days on horseback with his parents
into a world not known to any of them
into a belief system far from their own
looking for help they did not know would or could happen
Rowan spoke to horses, to reindeer, to his parents
My son calls me Emma and Emma, Daddy

After his journey
To an most unlikely and perfect place
Rowan was not cured of his autism
Rowan was presented with and accepted hope
With my son
We wait, take in the scenery
Point out what is good
Absorb whatever hope comes along
Then wait some more