Jodi Picoult : House Rules

If you would like to know more on autism, this story is something you should read. Get ready for a nerve wrecking story, beautifully penned down by Picoult!

Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy who is diagnosed with Asperger’s autism lives with his mom, Emma, a single mother and Theo, his one and only younger brother. Jacob is verbal that he tries to make efforts interacting with people around him. He wants to be part of the society, connecting his own locked world with the real world but he does not know how. Wise and brilliant are what people would say to him if they see him fixing the microwave and help his Calculus teacher fixing his computer. He is able to memorize periodic table without trying and does logarithms in his head. Living structurally and accordingly is the utmost principle of Jacob and if things are not going in accordance to his plans, he would throw tantrum and autism meltdown dramatically.

There’s one day, when a Free-Sample-Lady who always give away egg rolls and whatever she is working for at the mall on Saturdays to Jacob is absent. Knowing this, Jacob screamed and striking and he shoved the pickled jars that were arranged neatly on the shelves. The bottles dropped on the floor, attracting all eyes on them. Emma has no other choice but to pin his 6 feet child down on the floor with his arms and legs flung wide. Pressing Jacob’s body with her weight, she would sing a song at Jacob’s ear, “I shot the sheriff, but I didn’t shoot no deputy” a song by Bob Marley that is able to calm him down and bring him ‘back’. Bystanders would see this incident as a child abuse, but what other options does Emma have?

Living structurally means to have colour code. Hence, Jacob’s clothes are placed in rainbow order ROYGBIV in his closet and the food that they have everyday is colour coded too. All food is green on Monday, red on Tuesday, yellow on Wednesday and so on. Theo, who is a normal child has to coop with his brother’s routine however, there are times that he wish for another life wih different people. Most of the time, Jacob’s routines as asperger’s kid collide with Theo’s desires as a normal child. Thus, Emma wrote a written house rules as an effort to put things into places even she knows she could not.

1. Clean up your own messes

2. Tell the truth

3. Brush your teeth twice a day

4. Don’t be late for school

5. Take care of your brother, he’s the only one you’ve got

One of the hallmark of asperger’s kids is they would have fixation on particular subjects and it might change from time to time. As for Jacob, he used to be into dogs, dinasours and his current fixation is forensic science. He can blab forever about the facts of forensic science that he knows from CrimeBusters, a TV programme that he would never miss it. Talking in details about fingerprint analysis  and either it is an art or science is his forte.  Dr Henry Lee, a character of a pathologist in the CrimeBusters is a person he really look up to that he always set his own crime scene at home. With his mother’s corn syrup dripping on his head that look like blood and with Theo’s sneakers that he took, he creates his own crime scene  prudently with whatever he has at home and ask his mother to guess what is exactly happened.

Thanks to her mother’s gift to him on his birthday, a police scanner radio is utilized by Jacob to trace the incidents or any crime occurrence at his place. He often barged in at crime scenes. Once, was at the jewellery shop whereby a robbery had happened. One winter night with two inches of snow on the ground, he went into the woods after knowing a body was found there from his police scanner radio. There, he sneaked and listen to misjudgements of the police officers who see it as sexual assault and homicide. He stepped in spitting facts with details explaination and evidence that the body suffered from hypothermia. A condition where the core body temperature rose, the victim took off his cloth because he felt hot but in reality, he froze to death. Jacob left the polices, scpeehless with his sudden appearance.

Theo feels neglected. He is longing for a complete family that sometimes he wishes to live without Jacob. Living with Jacob, he is taught since he was kid to put his self interest behind and prioritize his brother’s needs. Thus, it is a common scene to see Theo running to Jacob’s class first before get to his, to inform Jacob’s teacher that Jacob has a rough morning today because it is just happened they ran out of soy milk on certain mornings. He tries to fill the emptiness that he has by breaking in to houses in a neighbourhood. The old houses with crappy locks approve Theo’s action when he easily could get in. Scrutinizing how the tenants live, Theo slipped in a few stuff in his pockets, games, Ipod and whatever he likes.  Until one day, Theo broke into a house, he out of the blue heard the shower running upstairs once he got in. Curious, he tiptoed to the master bedroom and found a woman in a bathroom, bathing. His eyes glued to the ambiguous figure behind the translucent door. He stoodstill until the door was opened and their eyes met before the woman screamed and Theo ran for his life, getting off the house.

On the same day, Jacob had an appointment with his tutor, Jess. Normally, Theo would accompany Jacob until he met Jess at her place. Unfortunately, Theo was under the weather and he thought it might be okay for him to go alone. Jacob went to his counsellor office and took a map and he drew a line on it and which bus to take to go to Jess’s place. Emma approved her son’s decision, thinking that this could be a good learning process for his son to travel alone for the first time.

However, at that very night, Jacob went home late. His mother found his eyes were wild with flapping hands once she opened the door. Knowing that her son struggled ‘inside’, she let Jacob ran to his bedroom before following him. There, he found that Jacob was sitting in the closet with his clothes hanging. Jacob smacked his head against the wall and without further a do, Emma pulled all of his clothes in the wardrobe and put them on Jacob. The weight on his body helped him to calm down. Emma turned off the light and turn on Jacob’s mp3 that played Bob Marley’s song repititively. Emma wiped her tears, while looking at Jacob sleeping in his closet, hoping for a  better tomorrow.

The next morning, Emma checked on his son and found that Jacob was unresponsive. She shouted his name and pushed him slowly but he just tilted to whatever his body fell. His eyes stared at the wall without blinking. At that very moment, Emma knew her son was trapped inside and he was struggling to get off from his world. Calling for Theo, Emma asked him to make his brother mad. Theo cursed and swore at him while pushing his brother’s chest. He shouted and screamed in front of his face but Jacob remained silence. Emma decided to bring Jacob to ER that together with Theo, they struggled to carry Jacob into the car. Fortunately, Jacob suddenly responded when he said ‘Mom, I’m cold’.

After that, everything was going on perfectly fine even at time Emma was wondering why Jess seemed to be far apart from them when she stopped replying emails and picking up calls. Until one day, Jess was reported missing by her boyfriend, Mark. Police started to search every nook and cranny and work on it closely, however her trace could not be identified. All the evidences at the crime scene led to Mark that he then, was caught as a suspect. It was days later that the polices found Jess’s body at the culvert. Her body was wrapped with a quilt and she was clothed properly. The murder case brought furore to the Townsend esspecially after the news was broadcasted. Emma was not exceptional to watch it on television and she was white as a sheet when the footages depicted the body that was wrapped with a familiar quilt. Guess what? That is the handmade quilt that she made to Jacob.

Embroiled in the labyrinth, Emma was in dillema, either to bring his autistic child to police station or just keep it as her top secret until she died. Not long after, she decided to bring Jacob to police station. Brace herself, she was pretty sure what Jacob and her would go through afterwards. Trials after trials, followed by continuosly interrogation to Jacob, but nothing could enlighten whether the court or the police of what actually happened to Jess Ogilvy. Jacob was defended by a novice lawyer, Oliver Bond. Things started at the wrong pace and everthing seemed to fall at the wrong place subsequently. Many times, Jacob threw temper tantrum and has his autistic meltdown in the court. It happened when he could not cooperate with the sharp voices that he felt like bouncing in the courtroom. It happened  when the prosecutor, Helen Sharp crumpled a piece of paper that he felt like his internal organs are crushed at the same time. At that very moment, he shrieked and screamed until he was brought to sensory break room. Polices’ suspicion towards Jacob was getting overwhelmed when Jacob could not make eye contact when they interrogate him? Why is so? Is it because of he is autistic that he could not do it or is it because it is true that he is the murderer?

House Rules started to tie up all the loose ends during Theo’s celebration birthday. Everybody gave a gift to Theo and surprisingly Jacob too. Of course, they were shocked as Jacob would never tried to make an effort to give somebody something. Giving something is not in his radar. What did he give to Theo? It is an Ipod. With smiles written all over his face, he showed it to Theo ‘You dropped it on the way out of her house that day.”

“At Jess’s I cleaned up for you, so no one would know what you did. And it worked Theo. No one ever found that you killed her.” Theo barely move his lips when he fell into a vaccum listening to his brother.

“I didn’t kill her, I didn’t even know she lived there. I didn’t think anyone was home. I was going to look around, maybe take a CD or two, but then heard water running upstairs and I peeked in. She was naked and she saw me. I freaked out and she got out of the shower and she slipped. She hit her face on the edge of the sink, that’s when I ran. I was afraid she, she’d catch me, she was alive when I left in the bathroom and all of the sudden the news says she’s dead and her body found outside.” Theo can’t breathe.

Emma looked at Jacob and gasped, her eyes were wide and everyone knew she was in terror. She said, “You didn’t kill Jess” and Jacob rolled his eyes. “I just moved her body. I have been telling you that the whole time.” Jacob stared at Emma and said, “why I didn’t call you or ambulance, it is because house rules. Take care of your brother, he’s the only one you’ve got and I do clean my own mess.”

House Rules depicts how an autistic child tried his best to be part of the society and to always be on the right track. The brilliant and poignant write up observes closely the struggles of a single mother dealt with her autistic kid and a normal child. Jacob always wants to be good that he often has inner battels with himself too. Hence, from an asperger’s autism perspective, it is a good thing to always follow the same rules even it is in different occasion. Jacob made a new crime set that led to Mark whom he coincidentally dislikes, at Jess’s just to cover up his one and only brother, Theo. He knew he did the right thing by wrapping Jess with the quilt and put on clothes to her. As Jess always said to him, it is a good thing to help people and understand his or her situation.

How much we know about people who suffer from the same disorder? How do our legal system normally works upon them? Are we able to understand what they are facing with if they are with us? What else we can do to cure the stigma of mental disorders?