Kathy sat back and glared at her mother. “But someone would have listened if you told them about Chalmer. ”

“I didn’t know,” Dorothy Moore said. “Kathy, as God is my witness, if I’d known what he did to Billy, I’d have cut his heart out. I’d never have taken that knife away from you, Billy.”

Billy frowned. “What knife?”

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” his mother said, smoothing her skirt over her long tanned legs. “You was about fourteen. I found the kitchen knife under your pillow and I asked you about it. You know what you said to me? I think it was the other one who said it. ‘Madam, I thought your husband would be dead by this morning.’ Those was your exact words, as God is my witness.”

“How’s Challa?” Billy asked, changing the subject.

His mother looked down at the floor.

“Something’s wrong,” Billy said.

“She’s all right,” his mother said.

“I feel something’s wrong.”

“She’s pregnant,” said Kathy. “She’s left her husband and she’s coming back to Ohio to live with Mom until she has the baby.”

Billy passed his hands over his eyes as if to clear away smoke or fog. ‘I knew something was wrong. I felt it. ”

His mother nodded. “You always did have a way of telling tilings. What do they call that?”

“ESP,” said Kathy.

“And you too,” said his mother. “Between the two of you, you always knew things. And you two could always know what was going on in each other’s minds without talking. That always gave me the creeps, I can tell you that.”

They stayed for over an hour, and when they left, Billy lay on his bed and stared out the window at the lights from the city of Athens.

(3)

In the days that followed, Billy jogged around the hospital grounds, read, watched TV and had therapy sessions. The Columbus newspapers ran stories about him regularly. People magazine published a long article on his life, and his picture appeared on the cover of Columbus Monthly. Calls began to flood the hospital switchboard from people who had read about or seen pictures of his artwork and wanted to buy his paintings. With Dr. Cauls permission, he sent for art supplies, set an easel up in his room and painted dozens of portraits, still lifes and landscapes.

Billy told Dr. Caul that a lot of people had contacted Judy and Gary about the rights to his life story, and others wanted him to appear on The Phil Donahue Show, Dinah! and 60 Minutes.

“Do you want someone to write about you, Billy?” Caul asked.

“I guess I could use the money. When I get better and go out into society, I’ll need something to support me. Who would give me a job?”

“Aside from the money, how do you think you’d feel about the whole world reading about your life?”

Billy frowned. “I think people should know. It could help them understand what child abuse can lead to.”