Turned toward the Extended Mind

When Ron was a boy of four, he first glimpsed the light of the Extended Mind peaking around a tree that stood in the middle of their front yard. The large oak tree had lost its leaves weeks before but they still surrounded the trunk and preceding the sighting he heard a crunching sound. He pulled his head away from his drawing and instead of Thistle, the family Border Collie he had expected to see, he saw a bright yellow boy, about his age, peering from around the tree--two glowing eyes alive with curiosity. Ron blinked, and the boy disappeared. He wouldn't see this emissary--his shadow--of the Extended Mind again until he was nine and went through the Inoculation Ritual.