the toothpick factory pt.3

The beatings happened continually in the orphanage. Not just to little James Spivey, but to all the orphans. Pretty much any and all forms of torture ever concocted to be used in the name of "Holiness", "God," and "Church", over the centuries, was implemented there. One of the more violent methods, used for "toughening-up", required that a pitch-fork be buried, vertical, with prongs pointing skyward, at about waist level, to the tortured child, while having him bent over, prongs a mere two inches from the chest area while being whipped on the back by Nuns/Priests. They had to take it. To give in was to be punctured by the ever-sharpened pitchfork, and made to bleed. Most kids would break and recieve punctures once, and that was it, never again would they break down like that. The broken ones would have puncture scars on their chests for the rest of their lives. Spivey didn't have these scars, just a much calloused and scarred back from the heavy whipping.

Spivey, and the rest of the kids at the orphanage, would never truly comprehend the brutality that was perpetrated on them there. By the time they were old enough to leave, and schooling was finished, they were released into the world, to be on their own. The idea was that they were so isolated during their childhood beatings/brainwashing that they thought the whole world operated this way, and in fact, that every child anywhere in the world, was raised the same way as they were. It was perfectly normal, and they were programmed not to question it. Obey! Period.

But what if a question should come?