"Well, I guess that is what they call it," she said grudgingly. "Anyway, they kept him there until he was eighteen. Then he came back to Elmwood and I've known him ever since."
"As a child, was the defendant er, ah, strange; that is, different from the other children?"
"He certainly was." The woman drew herself up primly. "Why, the first time that I ever laid eyes on that boy I said to my neighbor 'did you ever see a child with such a big head and such brooding eyes', why—"
The public defender started to rise.
"I don't mean physical characteristics, Mrs. Holk," the prosecutor hurriedly interjected. "The court is interested only in facts that will prove relevant to the case at hand."
"Oh." Mrs. Holk seemed disappointed. "Well, he never played much with the other children because they made so much fun of him. Not that they didn't have a right to, the way he was always acting. Picking up stray dogs and cats, and every thing else under the sun, and telling everybody that would listen how he cured their sores. It was enough to make a person sick. He even claimed that he could cure himself, and that was the reason that he was never sick! Hmmfp.
"Of course, he wasn't ever sick. No sir, not a day in his life. Never had the measles or the mumps like my Sally, and even when that terrible flu epidemic hit town he was just as chipper as you please. If you want incidents, I can tell you a dozen. There was one time when he was about five and I was over visiting with his ma. He came running into the house telling some big story about a bird with a busted wing that he had fixed up. Of course, his ma shut him up; she always was too easy on him. Another time—"
The man with the too big head and the serene features gazed softly at the witness stand. He remembered about the bird. He had been very young at the time and hadn't known, yet, that everyone didn't have The Gift.
He had found the little bird at the base of the old oak tree, scared and trembling from the dangers that threatened it out of its known element. He picked it up gently and felt the fluttering of its tiny heart in the palm of his hand. He saw that its wing was injured, and, with a feeling of pity and kindness, he located and repaired the injury. The little bird lay quietly in his hand, as if sensing a friend. Then it flew away into the blue sky.