Between Now and Forever by Margaret Duarte – A Visionary Fiction Book Review by Victor E. Smith

Margaret Duarte’s Between Now and Forever is a fascinating creation for several reasons, of which I will take up only one. Like her protagonist, novice teacher Marjorie Veil, the author serves society by illustrating that Indigo Children, a term which even Wikipedia downplays as a “pseudoscientific New Age concept,” are here among us, their advanced perceptual development is real, and, merely provided with understanding and a chance, they will blossom into the very geniuses our world needs to resolve the problems that has brought it to the brink.

Across the ages, the establishment has treated anyone with paranormal abilities, any mode of acumen beyond the five senses, as a mutant, making a rare few saints of inimitable stature and the rest demon-possessed or mentally unbalanced and thus deserving only to be locked away or worse. The seven children in Ms. Veil’s class, all from normal enough home environments, are destined for the latter should they luck out and survive the excesses and addictions that such kids tend towards once they accept the “freak” label others paste on them. The book is fiction, but the predicament is real and perplexing to anyone who has encountered and cares for this type of precocious youth—and there may be many more than expected.

But Between Now and Forever does more than bring attention to a prevalent problem. It demonstrates a detailed alternative for mentoring such children, drawn from simple—although not easy— modalities, available right now to those with minds and hearts open enough to try something “different” with those who are “different.” Besides being a good story with many vivid characters, this book is a must-read for Indigo Children—it will give them hope—and their caretakers—it will point to a workable way. I suggest that it be in the hands of every teacher and school administrator because, I dare guess, there are Indigoes in just about every modern classroom, and the old ways just won’t work with them; they already know better.