25The window shade sliced the morning sunlight into narrow parallel strips, but it still proved sufficient to warm his face and lift his heart. It reminded him of all those days huddling in darkness, stifling tears and praying to a silent god for a single daytime ray. He quickly brushed the thought away because it inevitably led him to memories of the wretched one and the b***h who abandoned him.
Better to concentrate on the future, he thought, and his true family. Of course, not all were people he'd have in his life under other circumstances, some might say normal circumstances. There was that gutless preacher, the former purveyor of Christian filth, who would perform any heinous deed if it made people like him. Karl Krexler recalled a scripture lesson that had been pounded into him by a
