Chapter 48: Chapter 48

Jim turned to Reed. “Permission to speak, Sir.”

“Answer Bear, Jim,” Reed said.

“Thank you, Master. I couldn’t really say. My best guess would be the mother. After the father died, when she was not beating the shit out of him, sorry Sirs, she leaned on him completely, never let him be a kid. The marriage was a May-December affair. The dad had a heart attack playing with the boy in the yard. I think the mother might have struck that note in an endless symphony. A person can be indoctrinated to believe anything if it is repeated often enough. Irene leaned on her husband, and losing him was the worst thing she could imagine. Since Irene could not conceive of anything she had done to bring about her husband’s heart attack, it had to be Brian. Brian became guilty by default and spent the rest of his childhood making up for killing his father.”

Bear bellowed, “She made a six-year-old believe he killed his dad?”