Torey Hayden

Hubby goes off to HK for work. Apart from the usual picking up the mess, bathing and discplining the only son that we have at this moment, I'll have more free time to read. Picked up a book at SANS bookstore at TM. Already halfway through the book. Title is 'One Child'. About a teacher at a special school battling emotionally disturbed children. One of the children is a 6 year old girl who was a survivor of horrific abuse. The child was not mentally disturbed but was placed in the class after trying to burn a three year old. She was apparently abondoned by her 14 year old mother on a highway and then custody was given to her drug addict father who lived in a migrant camp. She has only one set of clothes, does not shower and had gorged out the eyes of all the goldfish in the classroom fishtank on her first day of school.

This book actually reminds me of a movie that Ive watched last month. "Mysterious Skin" where the two main characters were two teenagers who were sexually abused by their baseball coach when they 're 8 years old. One of the them grew up to be a gigolo and the other kept on thinking that he was abducted by aliens when he was a child.

Although the above stories are both fiction, I am very sure that children in such plight exist. Children who are born in this world without love, food and shelter.