Michael Remembers Book 2

Book 2
Michael Tadlock must come to terms with two traumas. When his adoptive parents, the Farrells, are suddenly killed (innocent victims in a crime war), Michael, legally compelled to go live with his aunt, must leave the home and community he has grown to love. He adapts well enough to school and life in a small town, but notices a troubling phenomenon: While his body began to mature at a comparable time after his first Retrogression Procedure this time (when, by all rights, he should have the development of a boy in his mid-teens), Michael doesn't look a day over 11. Doctors tell him that the second Retrogression Procedure has adversely affected his pituitary gland, so that his adolescence/maturation will be significantly delayed, but probably not aborted with his substantial mental and financial resources, Michael (already a college graduate twice over) applies to Stanford and is accepted to earn a Ph.D. in history. So, he does. Ironically, though, as a known retro Michael is treated so badly by his "liberal" fellow students the first year, that thereafter he lives off campus in a neighborhood where he is accepted as a "regular" kid, even quite well liked. At last his body begins to mature again, but even after receiving his Ph.D., Michael finds all academic job offerings on Earth closed to him because of his retro status. Still, he doesn't give up. At Burroughs University on terraformed Mars he is welcomed and appreciated. Michael, at last an adult again, meets the love of his life, gets married, has three sons, and enjoys a state of happiness and fulfillment that he never before thought possible.