The Happiness Inquisition

By Nonen Titi

This novella starts with a seven year old boy who has been admitted to hospital in a coma. He is alone; his mother is detained on charges of child abuse.
The book then follows the events in reverse order, from the circumstances surrounding the abuse to the initial incident that caused the series of emotional reactions that lead to the abuse.
The story is told through the eyes of five point of view characters - the attending nurse, the mother, a reporter, an eleven year old school girl and a neighbor - but many more characters have a hand in the tragic outcome.
Today it takes only one anonymous phone call to ruin somebody's life and in a society where everybody has their hand on their cell phone, ready to dob in their neighbors, parents, teachers or partners, the results are disastrous, not only for the families, but for the next generation. The inquisition is back - but this time they're after parents.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nonen Titi
• Release date: Feb 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9780473215859

Nonen Titi

I started my career in physical and mental healthcare, tropical nursing and midwifery, including an assignment with Medecins sans Frontieres to Columbia and four summers in a camp for children with type one diabetes. Those experiences still provide a lot of the material for my books. More recently I added hypnotherapy to my healthcare training.After my children were born, I changed to education and worked a few years as a Montessori teacher before opting to educate my own children at home. That was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. In the meantime we had moved from Europe and the UK to the USA, Australia and now New Zealand.Nearly twenty years ago I became interested in the theory of psychological types of Carl Jung (and of Myers-Briggs and David Keirsey) which has changed my perspective on life completely and which I have made my special interest of study. When my children went off to university, I decided to join them and get a degree in philosophy. Since then I have been a writer of both fiction and non-fiction books inspired by the inborn differences that influence the beliefs, behavior and natural talents of every person on Earth.Although I enjoy writing non-fiction books, I believe that fiction is best suited to help bridge those natural differences. Hence, my books portray human nature to a depth where the study of psychology cannot reach, each character an easily recognizable personality and together in pursuit of a positive future.

Book preview

THE HAPPINESS INQUISITION

On Thursday evening Amanda arrived for her night shift at the children’s special care unit after the others had already started the round. Sorry, I had to find somebody to watch Crystal.

Pat, the paediatrician, gave her a brief smile that meant she had no time for small talk since she, too, had children waiting at home. But the two duty nurses, like Amanda, had all night, and agreed that childcare was getting too expensive. It was only affordable for the rich, who didn’t need to work, while those who were desperate for help couldn’t afford it, forcing them to leave their children home alone or on the streets.

And why? Because the childcare providers, the few that haven’t bailed out yet, are paying a fortune in legal insurance.

Happily married stay-at-home mothers don’t seem to do much better, Pat said and stopped in the little room of the latest arrival. Came in this evening with multiple head injuries; suspicion of abuse at the hands of the mother. He hasn’t responded to stimuli since admission. Seven years old, though you wouldn’t think it, seeing his size. Could be growth retarded due to whatever was going on in that home. The mother is in custody, but she blames the father, who has been restricted access until further notice. The neighbours and grandparents seem to not understand what happened; they say she was stable and gentle and she loved the boy. The child has a twin, who has been put in foster care, but she seems in good health.

The tiny boy in the big bed looked cold and lonely with nothing but the monitoring apparatus to keep him company. No caring parents to hold his hand, alone in the world. Poor kid. What kind of a mother would do this to her own child?

A mother who doesn’t deserve that title, Pat said, and added that Amanda shouldn’t talk to anybody about it. Especially not to that pesky journalist downstairs.

Being a student nurse, Amanda was assigned to watch the boy for the night because, unlike the post-op and seriously ill children, he only needed simple observations and daily care. The best thing you can do is talk to him like you would to a plant. Even if he doesn’t understand what you say, the soothing sound of a human voice may help rouse him.

A night shift of random talking would have been extremely long had Amanda not brought the manuscript of her brother’s story. The child in the bed was breathing unassisted and invisibly; maybe he could hear her, maybe not. Either way, the words were ready to be spoken.

Jimmy didn’t write it for children; he wrote it for parents, little Josh, she told the comatose boy while settling into the chair beside him. "I would have read it at his funeral last year, but those hypocrites who called themselves our parents threw me out. They didn’t want a reminder of their failure.

"And why? Because they belonged to a generation so focused on their own selfish existence that they didn’t listen to the needs of their children, too busy projecting their own frustrations to stop Jimmy from looking for love where it was dangerous. And then they had the nerve to turn around and tell me that I’m not a good mother. How dare they?

"Jimmy didn’t find what he was looking for; he wasn’t gang material. He was soft and kind and smart. Besides, they were no more than kids themselves, acting in a fake hierarchy, every one of them searching for a new set of parents. Nor did the pills help him, whether legal or illegal; they simply denied his existence altogether. Just like our parents denied him by accepting the label the doctors gave them as a cure for their own guilt, so they could believe that it was a disorder and not their incapability that drove my brother to suicide.

I won’t let that happen to my baby. I love Crystal too much to wait for things to get out of control. I don’t want her to end up like you or like Jimmy, orphans of this war on parents – because, like in every other war, in the end it is the children who suffer.

Amanda moved to sit on the side of the bed next to the child’s head the way she would sit when reading Crystal her bedtime story, so she could stroke the dark locks of hair.

This, little Josh, who reminds me so of my brother, is Jimmy’s story, but I think he’d want to dedicate it to you.

The Happiness Inquisition

There was once a wise and fair king who ruled his land with majesty and asked his subjects for their consent before making decisions. The people enjoyed simple, healthy lives and most had loving families, and those in need would always find help with their neighbours.

Of course, there were the normal problems, like the occasional spell of poverty or disease, harm caused by evil villains and sometimes one of the neighbouring countries making an attempt to invade. But in those cases the young men would stand by their king and he by them, as equal brothers to defend their freedom.

However, the king had one regret; he had no children of his own to inherit his kingdom. So he sent out a request to every village that they should choose one young boy to be put forward as ‘the king’s prince’. These chosen princes then participated in four tournaments, each testing a specific skill – one of courage, one of intelligence, one of compassion and one of loyalty – and the winner of each tournament was to become one of the