The kindness of strangers

The plot summary of this book interested me and so I picked it up. The inside jacket said that after tragedy strikes Jordan, Sarah a widow and mother of 2, takes him into her home to help him heal (that's a really condensed version). So, I thought that this “tragedy” was going to be a sudden death of his parents, like a car accident. Wow, was I way off.

Sarah is a widow with two sons, Nate and Danny. Nate is an active teeenager, who has been suspended from school for truancy, namely skipping class to sit by his father's grave. Danny is a “straight to the point” child in elementary school who is struggling through his remedial classes and trying to figure out why his best friend hates him. Sarah is a caterer who has managed to keep her family together in the aftermath of her husband's death.

One day, while running errands, Sarah comes upon her young neighbor, and Danny's former best friend, Jordan. He is leaving for school late so she offers him a ride. This ride to school puts the wheels in motion for a very disturbing story. In short: Jordan attempts suicide, Sarah takes him to the hospital, police become involved and it comes out that Jordan is the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of his father and “business associates”. The big question everyone has “did Courtney (Jordan's mother) also abuse him or was she completely unaware of the atrocities her husband and ‘associates' inflicted upon the young boy?”. The answer comes out over halfway through the book.

Child molestation is a topic that is at once horrifying, disgusting, saddening, sickening, heartbreaking and angering. We, as adults (and those who are parents) spend a lot of time telling kids about “Stranger Danger” and the difference between good touch and bad touch. My parents drilled all of that into me when I was a child, and thankfully I never experienced stranger danger or bad touch by an adult. This book takes the horror of pedophilia and puts it into the home of a prominent family in a close-knit neighborhood. The parents in the community are shocked and horrified that these neighbors, Courtney and Mark, would do something so terrible as abuse their son and allow “associates” to also abuse their son and VIDEOTAPE it! This book does a very good job of showing the aftermath of molestation for the victim (Jordan), concerned/confused neighbor (Sarah) and her protective, yet guilt ridden son (Nate).

Katrina Kittle has written a book that is at once engaging and sad. I immediately liked Sarah, and felt for her every time she wished her husband was still around to help her address her sons' various issues, then she opens her home and her heart to this young boy who is badly damaged. Jordan is a good example of an abused child, he fears his father but loves and wants to protect his mother, although both of his parents are guilty of sexual abuse. Nate reminds me quite a bit of my cousins when they were teenagers: parents were a drag, a lot of peer pressure and testing of the boundaries that exist between being a child and being a man. When Nate finds out about the abuse Jordan suffered through he is immediately filled with guilt as Courtney, on several occassions, made passes at him as well as kissed him. He now feels a deep need and desire to protect Jordan from the parents who abused him, as well as work to earn his own mother's trust in him and prove that he will no longer be a disciplinary problem. Danny is a child who is not able to completely comprehend what has happened to Jordan, until he sees photos of the abuse inflicted on Jordan, then all he wants to do is protect Jordan and rebuild their friendship.

As part of my job, I sat in a trial on a child sexual assault case, and was deeply bothered by it. “Bothered” isn't even the right word, I cannot begin to express how it affected me, listening to the victim (a 13 year old girl) tell of the events of her assault as well as the testimony of a co-defendant. I didn't know this young victim, but I kept thinking “if only I could have saved her” and “I hope I can save the next child from experiencing this kind of nightmare” during the trial. Sarah did just that, she rescued Jordan and gave him a home and showed him what parent/child love is (respect, appreciation, discipline, concern...) and what it is not (sex). How do you save a child whose parents do to him/her what only two CONSENTING adults should do, but you don't even know and those parents live right next door to you? It's never too late to rescue just such a child, that's what the books shows.