In general the boy ………

He was brought to the asylum at the age of three when the staff at the orphanage could no longer cope with his wild behaviour, and he has been here for the last eight years. He is surrounded by the despairing cries of the other fifteen or so children who share the room, which is illuminated by a single electric bulb hanging from the ceiling, just out of reach. There is no warmth surrounding him, so for much of the day he sits on the stone floor in his torn, naked clothes clasping his knees tightly to his thin body and burying his head; there are moments of rage as well, when he hit his pale, scarred face with his fists or beats his head against one of the walls. At other times he simply sits there rocking hard backwards and forwards, his wide open, black eyes staring at the grey walls and at a terrifying, endless future as sorrowful as despair itself.