Jef was born with a peculiar type of autism. Jef’s autism rendered him vulnerable to whatever psychic noise filled his environment. Jef never developed any emotions of his own. He simply, intensely, absorbed and reproduced the emotions that were emanating from the people around him. Often he would reflect others’ emotions more clearly and more vividly than they themselves would. Occasionally he would find himself trapped in emotional feedback loops with others as they witnessed their own grief or joy or embarrassment leak out from their hearts, into, then out of the boy.
Jef committed suicide at age twelve while in the presence of a bereaved Japanese businessman.
The Lunar Fox Press 