Culture Shock 2: The Requital

By Robert Menzies

It is now six years since Helen, Mururunjii David and David moved into their idyllic rainforest retreat in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. Helen and Mururunjii are still very much in love, but Helen has miscarried twice and has now been informed she will never give birth to another baby. She thinks about the baby girl she gave up for adoption fifteen years ago and suddenly feels the need to try and find her and, if given the opportunity, try to explain to her the reasons she gave her up as a baby. She makes some enquiries through the Australian Adoption Agency and discovers that her little girl is in fact a boy, who his adoptive parents have named Ryan. She had been lied to about his sex when she gave birth all those years ago. She also learns that Ryan is autistic, but highly intelligent, with an IQ of 135plus, which puts him in the genius range of intelligence. When she finally gets to meet Ryan she finds him rude, opinionated, arrogant, self-centred and extremely bitter about the way his mother "abandoned" him as a baby. Helen also discovers that her son is obsessive-compulsive and he regularly self-harms. He has also been in trouble with the law on numerous occasions for consuming illegal substances and for theft and break and entry. Despite his shortcomings, Helen discovers that Ryan's adoptive parents love him very much. They are very much afraid that Helen might try and take their adopted son away from them. Helen ensures than that she has never even considered such an action and that she is now happy to step out of Ryan's life forever. But a few weeks later, Ryan suddenly appears on her doorstep, insisting he wants to come and stay with Helen and her family, having left home without informing his adoptive parents. Helen immediately contacts Ryan's adoptive mother, Colleen with the news. Colleen asks Helen to make Ryan's stay as uncomfortable as possible in order that he won't decide to stay permanently. From the very outset Ryan insults and upsets Mururunjii, David and Helen with his rudeness, his abusive and derogatory comments and his selfishness. Then he suddenly disappears. Helen, concerned that he might be in trouble, asks her husband to help search for him. They discover him living with a woman who is old enough to be his mother, and being paid to perform highly illegal and immoral activities. They also discover that Ryan has unwittingly found himself involved in a terrorist organisation with cells in Sydney and all over Australia. When Helen, Mururunjii and David try to rescue Ryan, they themselves are captured and imprisoned. During their incarceration they discover increasingly alarming things about what Ryan has been doing. What follows is a desperate bid by Helen and Mururunjii to free Ryan from the sordid world he has entered, only to discover that Ryan refuses to leave, becoming further and further enmeshed in illegal and highly dangerous terrorist activities. The story climaxes in a race against time to save Ryan from himself and from the web of intrigue that has engulfed him. In the process, Ryan discovers some startling things about himself, his abilities and his shortcomings. Helen and Mururunjii also discover a world of deception and conspiracy that they never knew existed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1729626874
• ISBN13: 9781729626870
• Release Date: November 2018
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"