6701: A Synopsis

“I met your two best friends at your funeral today.” CC Dove finds herself unraveling at her beloved teenage son William’s hastily-planned funeral, where she's faced with the shock of discovering his subversive double life.  

With his memorial as a structural narrative framework, the mystery unfolds in present tense, year by year over his brief lifetime, as his situation is transformed from precocious, delightful, and hopeful to increasingly enigmatic, grotesque, and dangerous. Where did things go wrong? Through a series of sharp turns - obstacles, challenges, and invisible diagnoses that threaten his life daily - William’s everyday life becomes a disaster waiting to happen. The reader knows his death is looming, but when, how, and why? 6701 is the mostly-true agonizing story of a loving, painstakingly devoted mother’s battle to keep her high-maintenance, risk-prone, medically unstable, gifted son safe, supported, and on his way to the promising future he had planned. 

Being a mother means learning about the strengths you didn’t know you had and dealing with the excruciating fears you didn’t know were possible.