by Richard Bard
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Acknowledgments
Brainrush is my first novel. It was a lifetime in the making—which means that the list of people to thank stretches from here to forever. So instead of listing them all—in this first of what I hope will be many acknowledgments—I’d like to share some insight on what inspired Jake’s story, while offering my heartfelt gratitude to the most important person of all:
My mother always said, “Ricky, you can do anything you set your mind to.” I believed her. If I failed at something, I figured it was simply because I hadn’t done it right. So I’d try again. I can’t tell you how many times I sat in church, or class, or the library and stared at the back of someone’s head, focusing my thoughts, willing them to turn around, or sneeze, or twitch—anything! (Yes, I really did that.) Of course it never worked. But I never stopped trying, no matter how impossible it seemed. I’d hear stories about people with photographic memories, or ESP, or incredible math or artistic skills, and I’d think, “Hey, if they can do it, why can’t I?”
Some people are so gifted that their abilities boggle the mind. Like Kim Peek, the autistic savant that inspired the movie, Rain Man (1988), whose incredible brain allowed him to recount countless ball-player statistics in exacting detail. He even memorized a good portion of the phone book, among other things. Or the legally blind crayon artist, Richard Wayro, whose works sells for up to $10,000 each, one of which resides on the Pope’s wall. Or what about Stephen Wiltshire? After only a fifteen minute helicopter ride over London he spent the next five days drawing a highly detailed 12-foot mural depicting seven square miles of the city, right down to every street, building and window. Incredible.
My research for the Brainrush series revealed that there are a growing number of accounts of “ordinary” people that develop incredible mental and physical abilities following trauma to the head. In one example, ten-year-old Orlando Serrell was hit in the head by a baseball. Not long afterward he was able to recall an endless list of license-plate numbers, song lyrics, and weather reports—as if a switch had suddenly been thrown in his brain. That suggests the abilities were resident in his brain in the first place, just waiting to be unlocked, right? This “sudden genius” or “acquired savant” has been the focus of study by Dr. Darold Treffert, a recognized expert in the field. His book Islands of Genius is packed full of similar examples.
Other groups, including one led by Dr. Alan Snyder, who holds the 150th Anniversary Chair of Science and the Mind at the University of Sydney, are working on methods to unlock these abilities—without the need for a fastball to the noggin. What’s it going to be like, when each and every one of us is able to tap into that well of creative genius?
The world as we know it will cease to exist.
So I guess my mother was right. Not just about me, but about all of us. We can do anything we set our minds to. For me, I’ve decided to write. Maybe later, after the technology’s been developed to throw that switch in my brain, I’ll become a concert pianist. In the meantime, if you’re sitting in church or the library someday and you suddenly feel an unusual tingling at the back of your head, turn around and make my day.
Thanks, Mom.
