And he also created a magical atmosphere of trust between us by confessing his secret, which was that, as a very young boy starting at age four, he had been savagely and repeatedly physically abused by his stepfather, and the abuse had gotten so bad that he had had to drop out of school in eighth grade, even though he was very smart, and he'd spent almost 20 years rebuilding his life.
Uz to je stvorio čarobnu atmosferu povjerenja između nas priznavši mi svoju tajnu: od vrlo rane dobi, od njegove četvrte godine, opetovano ga je divljački tjelesno zlostavljao njegov očuh, a to je zlostavljanje toliko eskaliralo da se ispisao iz škole u 8. razredu, usprkos visokoj inteligenciji, Gotovo 20 godina proveo je nastojeći ponovno izgraditi svoj život.