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.~ * ~Pastor Geyer came to visit soon after the incident, and Peter's mother made coffee for him and lemonade for Peter, and they sat and the pastor talked to him for a while.Then Mother told Peter to run along to his room and get ready for bed because his parents and the pastor wanted to talk alone.When, a half hour later, his parents came to his bedside to tuck him in, he thought that his mother looked at him again as if he had done something bad, and dirty, and he went to sleep seeing that look in his mother's eyes, and praying to God to let him be good so that his mother would love him again.~ * ~It took longer than Glenda Foreman had thought for Peter Hurst to have his speech problem evaluated.He was finally tested the following October, after he entered first grade.It was found that he had a developmental language problem in which word order was often inverted.In a conference, the speech therapist told Clyde and Miriam Hurst that several months of intensive therapy should take care of it.The Hursts agreed to the treatment, but Miriam gave orders that only speech therapy should be done.When the therapist asked what she meant, she told him that she did not want any psychological or psychiatric counseling for her son, and the therapist, though puzzled, agreed.Peter Hurst turned out to be a textbook example of the changes that good therapy and the passage of time can bring about.By second grade, his speech was nearly perfect, the reversions coming only under moments of stress.Most of the time he was able to express himself eloquently, and proved to be bright and receptive to his lessons.But he was above all a child with goodness, and the appearance of goodness, on his mind.He never played any games at school that made the slightest nod toward violence, and if other children misbehaved when the teacher had her back turned, Peter would tell precisely who was committing what infraction.When Todd Brewster hit him in the face at recess for telling Mrs.Daugherty that Todd had been the one who made the belching noise, he went directly to Mr.Good, who was on playground duty, and, without crying, showed Mr.Good his bloody nose and told him who had done it and why.The violence against Peter escalated, all of it born of vengeance for his tactless exposure of his classmates' transgressions.But when, every time, he reported his persecutors, he was finally left alone, and most of the students looked upon his dark, scowling face the same way they looked upon the teacher's.But while they felt affection for Mrs.Daugherty, they felt none for Peter Hurst, the traitor in their midst.Peter was, however, able to make friends with some of the less popular and weaker children, who, since he reported attacks on them as well as himself, looked on him as their champion, willing to take on the contempt of the others for their sakes.No student ever saw him mock or raise his hand to another.And every word was spoken calmly, never in anger.He saved anger for his solitude.Peter's favorite toys were the Great Heroes of the Bible, six-inch high figures that his mother and father bought at a Christian gift and book shop in the Greater Buchanan Mall.His favorite Bible figure was David, who came with a sling and a shepherd's staff.But instead of the staff and sling, Peter would put the Sword of Righteousness and the Shield of the Holy Word from the Joshua figure into David's plastic hands.Then, alone in his room, David would slay the Goliath figure, who could also be Todd Brewster or Danny Godfrey, but was most often, in Peter's mind, a bad man who wanted to do bad things.David would cut and cut at the bad man's legs until he fell.Then he would take the sword and hack away at his neck, and at the sexless junction of legs and torso.Finally he would turn the bad man over on his stomach and stab the thin blade of gray plastic into the undivided rondure of the figure's backside, pretending that there was a deep hole into which the sword could plunge.When Peter played these games, he breathed heavily, and his mouth filled with saliva.At the age of thirteen, he began to get his first erections while playing in this way, and started to enlist the figure of Ruth into his scenarios, making David press his hands against Ruth's flat, hard chest.The first time he did this, he rubbed his stiffening penis through his jeans until he had an intense and frightening orgasm, his first, since he had not yet had a wet dream.Although he had learned about orgasms in health class, it was still unexpected and terrifying, awakening the memory of the bad man and the things that the bad man did, what the bad man made him put in his mouth, and what happened then.Peter sat in his room, cold sweat on his face, his jeans with their betraying stain as dark as sin, knowing that he could not tell his mother or father about this, that he would have to wash his jeans and underwear himself, and thinking that he would never do this again, and wondering when he could.Peter's life was more free of sexual stimulation than any of his classmates.While the others saw half-naked women and men on television, on their computers, and in magazines, every piece of paper, website, and TV signal that came into the Hurst home was carefully screened in advance.Peter's upbringing was more closely akin to that of children fifty years earlier, to whom the mechanics behind Lucy Ricardo's pregnancy was a mystery, and two piece bathing suits never revealed a navel.The Hursts had no DVD player, subscribed only to basic cable (which was filtered and mostly played Fox News), and their computer had only educational and reference software installed.Peter was permitted Internet access only under supervision, and the family attended only G-rated movies when they went at all.In 2004, a week after Peter's first orgasm, Miriam was finally persuaded to allow her son to stay overnight at a friend's house for the first time.The boys were alone together in Joe Potter's room, and Joe was playing The Terminator on his DVD player for Peter.When the bad language started, Peter asked Joe to turn it off, but Joe only shook his head and passed Peter the popcorn."Nah, it’s old, but it gets really good," Joe said."Just wait, he kills all kindsa people, and this girl gets naked later."Peter's mouth went dry.He had never seen a naked girl before, and he desperately wanted to.Still, he knew what his mother always said about temptation -- that it was best to avoid even coming close to the things that tempted you to sin, and that once you thought the thoughts, ninety percent of you was already in hell."We shouldn't watch this." he said, taking a handful of popcorn and putting it into his already parched mouth.It tasted like sand."Aw, don't be such a pussy, man.It's neat.Just shut up and watch
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