Chapter 16 - ETHAN’S STORYEthan’s formal interview was not dramatic.
He played with a blue stress ball.
Looked at the floor.
The interviewer asked:
“Tell me about rules at home.”
Ethan said:
“Gary has more rules than Mom.”
“What happens when you break one?”
“He yells.”
“What else?”
“Sometimes belt.”
“Tell me about belt.”
Ethan explained two prior incidents.
One after he lied about homework.
One after he took twenty dollars from Mom’s purse to buy a game card.
He admitted taking the money.
“I was bad.”
The interviewer said:
“Taking money without permission is a behavior adults can address. Tell me what Gary did.”
That wording mattered.
Bad behavior does not turn a child into an adult’s object.
Ethan said Gary struck him several times over clothing.
Mom had been home for one incident.
She cried in the hallway.
Afterward she told Ethan:
“Just don’t make him that mad.”
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When I read that later, I could not speak.
That sentence was the family disease in eight words.
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