Now, in a sequel, Williams focuses on Ben, 19. Suffering from TBI (traumatic brain injury) and PTSD, his return to his parents’ ranch in Salt Lick, Nevada is not going well. “Seeing Daylight” ($15.99 in paperback, independently published; also for Amazon Kindle) is a deeply researched story of the interior life of a wounded warrior, and how organizations that provide service dogs to disabled vets can bring them back from the brink.
It’s also the story of Molly, 17 (about to turn 18) who lives with her mom in Winnemucca. She wants to train a dog for Canine Heroes, like her mother does, but her mother pooh-poohs the idea. In contrast to Ben’s tight-knit, supportive family, Molly’s is somewhat frayed.
Ben and Molly narrate their alternating chapters, and at first it seems they are unlikely ever to cross paths. But when Ben is pressed to seek therapy after screaming nightmares that scare his younger sister, and uncontrollable flashbacks to the IED explosion and aftermath (an Iraqi child dragged him to safety), Molly meets Ben (whom she had more than admired in high school) and works on training a shelter dog for Ben. She calls him Roger.
After the explosion, Ben tells us, “the field docs shot me up with drugs that dropped me into a medical coma. Time dissolved. And after they amputated my lower arm and repaired by head and the traumatic brain injury started to heal, I had to learn to talk again, to walk, all that…. a sadness is pooling in my chest, drowning me, and I can’t put my finger on exactly why.”
A shooting incident in which Molly is wounded threatens to undo a budding romance. Yet Ben’s transformation is not yet over, and readers will be riveted by what the human spirit can accomplish given a big hearted dog and the love of a feisty young woman.
