The Lost Boy

When David returns to the Catanzes, he no longer feels at ease among the other foster children, who treat him differently after his return from juvenile probation. In July 1974, Gordon Hutchenson arrives to move David to another foster home, in part because of the difficulties David has been having with the other foster kids. Lilian and David sob in each other’s arms as they say goodbye to each other. After leaving the Catanzes, Gordon learns that there are no spaces available in any of the local foster homes for that night. Since he does not want David to spend the night at Hillcrest, he decides to take him to one of the foster homes and beg them to take David for the night. Alice and Harold Turnbough initially tell Gordon that they do not have room for another child, but they subsequently relent and agree to let David stay with them. The next week, Gordon takes David to live with a woman named Joanne Nulls. Although Mrs. Nulls is very kind, she makes David uncomfortable by treating him like a little boy and refusing to let him do anything on his own. She and her husband also frequently quarrel, which reminds David of how his own parents constantly fought while drunk. David is soon taken away from the Nulls after the couple decides to get a divorce. Because Gordon has run out of other options, David is taken to a foster home that is very close to his mother’s house. His new foster parents, Vera and Jody Jones, are very kind but have too many foster kids to give David his own room.

At his new school, David makes friends with a boy named Carlos. One day, Carlos and David visit the nearby elementary school and encounter one of David’s brothers, Russell. Russell’s disheveled appearance and bruised arms indicate that David’s mother is still mistreating her children. Russell tells David that things at home are “real bad”; their mother drinks and abuses them more than ever (245). Russell tells David, “Do you have any idea of what she’d do if she ever found out I’d talked to you?” (245). That night, David dreams about his mother trying to kill him. The next day, he resolves to find Russell again and tries to come up with a plan to help him escape their mother. He takes Carlos with him to the elementary school, where he sees his mother with Russell. He makes eye contact with her and sees her reach into her purse and pull out her keys, which David mistakes for a knife. He runs into a parking lot, trips over the curb, and goes flying onto the hood of a moving car before hitting his head on the pavement. Carlos helps him get up, and they run away from the school. His mother gets in her car and follows them, but they get to Carlos’s house before she catches them. When David gets back to Vera and Jody’s house, he hears his foster parents fighting in the kitchen. Bobby, one of the foster children, explains that they are shutting down the house because Jody has been accused of statutory rape by one of their former foster children. Bobby does not believe the allegations, but all the kids are being placed in new homes. David is taken back to the Turnboughs, where he has to stay on the couch until he can be placed in a new permanent foster home.

David stays at the Turnboughs so long that Alice re-enrols him in his old junior high school. Since they do not have the space to put him in his own room, David has to sleep on the couch and live out of his grocery bag of clothes. Eventually, Alice tells David that she and Harold want to become David’s permanent foster parents. David has always feared that Harold disliked him and is relieved to know that Harold wants him to stay just as much as Alice. David also begins to see a new psychiatrist, Dr. Robertson, who is much kinder than his first psychiatrist and does not force him to talk about anything that he is not yet ready to discuss. Dr. Robertson recommends some books on “basic psychology” to help David work through his need for answers about his past (265). After a few months, David finds himself opening up more to Alice and getting closer to the Turnboughs. His new foster parents give him a great deal of love and attention but also encourage him to start thinking about the future. David starts to find ways to make money and gets Alice to teach him how to cook for himself.

In July 1976, two new foster boys move into the Turnbough residence. David does not get along with them at all. Eventually, he tells Alice either they leave, or he will. Consequently, he moves into the juvenile hall until he can be placed in a new home. He is soon placed with Linda and John Walsh, “a young couple in their twenties with three kids” (271). David is happy living with the Walshes until one day they tell him that they are moving. David gets upset as he assumes that this means he will have to go to a new family; however, Linda and John soon reassure that they mean to take him with them. The family moves into a “Leave it to Beaver neighborhood,” a suburb called Duinsmoore with “immaculate houses” and “perfectly manicured lawns” (273). David soon makes friends with two neighborhood teenagers, Dave Howard and Paul Brazell, and the boys start spending their free time together practicing stunts on their motorbikes. One day, Paul helps David prepare to meet a girl he likes who lives in the neighborhood. He knocks on her door and chats with the girl until her mother appears and yells at David to stay away from her children. She refers to him as “that little F child” who has been terrorizing the streets with his friends and tells him that she is sure he did something horrible to end up in foster care (277). Before slamming the door, she tells him to “stick with [his] own kind” (278). David is devastated by the woman’s malicious remarks, but soon after another neighbor, Michael Marsh, befriends him. Since the Walshes begin to fight more and more, David begins to spend most of his time with Michael and his wife, Sandra; above all, he pours over Michael’s books about “movies, race cars and airplanes” (282). He also begins to hang around Dan Brazell, Paul’s dad, who is always working on impressive building projects in his garage. Although David loves living in Duinsmoore near Dave, Paul, and the Marshes, when the Walshes’ quarrels start to become violent, he calls his probation officer, Mrs. Ryan, and asks to be moved to a new home. As he says goodbye to the Marshes, Michael gives him a Delta Airline postcard that says, “Stay in touch, Slim” (285). David then returns to living with Turnboughs. When Alice warns him that this is the last time he’ll be able to return, he tells her that he now knows where he belongs.