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"No, no Nothing of the like He was teased, beaten and bullied by other boys He just sat there when they hurt him and said that God was his protector and that Jesus would turn the other cheek"

"And then?"

"Soon after, the parents decided to take him out of school, but because of another incident, a really strange incident And that’s when children’s services ordered that he see a psychiatrist-- him?" she asked

"If you’d asked the parents? He was my patient for a year Social services paid me for a year But I’ve seen hian about three years ago, when his parents pulled hi was, in his oay, he was happy to come see me Musical instruments, other than the voice, were a sin in his house But he’s soenius with the piano At my house, he could play"

"What was the incident that caused social services to step in?" Jenna asked

"He looked at a boy," Jamie said

"Looked at him?" Jenna repeated, puzzled

Ja food from his lunch tray at Malachi Malachi looked at him, and this other boy froze--and then he picked up his tray and beat himself over the head with it so hard that he had a concussion He was hysterical and told the doctors that Malachi had forced hi at Ja "Wait--this other kid said that Malachi looked at him, and made him beat himself silly?"

Jamie nodded

Jenna shook her head "Why--that’s preposterous Especially here It’s like the girls crying Witch! Witch! Witch! and causing the unjust deaths of twenty people and the incarceration of nearly two hundred hed "He was better off out of school The thing is, I think that Malachi desperately wanted to be normal He was malnourished, and he was raised to think that just about everything in the world was evil, an idea browbeaten into him by a fanatical father He never lost his teoad hi individual I’ve ever ton, was killed, one of the boys who he’d been with at school went to the police and told theht Malachi in for questioning, but Mrs Sedge at the grocery store, said that Malachi had been in thedinner cuts for his mother--she never left the house--so he was off the hook But, then, last night…well, Malachi was found drenched in his fa naked in the road"

Jenna put her hand on her uncle’s "Uncle Jamie, you have a friendship with this boy…but, if he was found covered in his family’s blood…?"

"Jenna, I need you to find out the truth about that house," he said with resolution "Uncle Jamie--"

"We can’t let the system take this boy We have to somehow make it work for him no that he has a chance"

"A chance?"

"His parents are gone now," Jaive me!" he murmured and crossed hiious ht, Jenna?"

Surprised by the sudden question, she arched a brow to hiure that meant you’d turned away completely but--sorry! No, I know that you still love the church"

He nodded "I’ion at tis done daily in the na the baby out with the bathwater, you know?"

"Jaain"

"They were--fanatics," Jamie said "I don’t even know exactly what belief they adhered to, but it ith a vengeance There was hell to pay when that boy didn’t learn his Bible verses or when he couldn’t recite huge tracts of the Bible"

"He was abused?"

"Not physically--they weren’t beatings, or even severe spankings Parents often tap the hands of little ones--to stop theht socket… No, the abuse was mental and, well, I do suppose physical in a way No food could be eaten without the father’s blessing…"