Lilian assures David that she and Rudy are fighting as hard as they can to keep David and prevent his mother from finding a way to justify her treatment of him. While at Hillcrest, David learns from Lilian that his mother is trying to prove that David was so “incorrigible” as a child that she was forced to use “unconventional” methods to discipline him. David is charged with arson and is sent to Hillcrest, the local juvenile hall, to await trial. When the fire gets out of control, John runs away and leaves David to take the blame.
In sixth grade, he befriends a kid named John, who encourages David’s stealing and manipulates him into serving as the “lookout” while John sets a school classroom on fire. The traumatic memories of his mother’s abuse continue to haunt him, and he is upset by his father’s failure to visit him at his new home. As a result, the judge rules that David should be made a permanent ward of the court.ĭavid soon develops a strong bond with his new foster parents, Lilian and Rudy Catanze, but at school he struggles to fit in and often encounters prejudice against foster children. At the trial, however, when the judge asks if he would rather become a ward of the court or return home with his mother, he tells the judge he would rather live with him.
Because he believes that his mother will get him back and punish him for telling the “family secret,” he decides to retract his statements about the abuse. Gold, he panics when he learns that she is gathering evidence to build a case against his mother so that she cannot regain custody of him. Although David becomes very attached to Ms.
Gold, who visits David at Aunt Mary’s house and interviews him about his mother’s abusive behavior. The police inform his parents that he will not be coming home and place him in a temporary foster home with a woman whom all the children call “Aunt Mary.” David is soon assigned a social worker, Ms. When David is twelve years old, his teachers notify the police that he is being abused at home.
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