ABANDONED. Autistic boy, presses nose to car window and get a bloody nose when father slams the breaks.

[Rosana]

I first heard this as an audio book and only remember a couple of scenes:
1) He’s walking home from school and the janitor asks if he likes school because he keeps coming back but the boy has to take the walk in a very precise way. Eg. He needs to take exactly seven steps between two posts, any more or less and he needs to walk all the way back to the school and start the pattern again.
2) He’s sitting in the front seat and his father (or male relative) is driving and the boy keeps leaning forward to press his nose against the windshield and the father keeps telling him to stop or the next time he’ll regret it and when the boy does it again the father slams the breaks so the boy hits the windshield and gets a bloody nose. The father asks something like “did you like that?” and the boy thinks how he loved it, loved the sensation of the cool glass pressing against his nose and the thick warm sensation of the blood.
3) When he’s older the boy visits a nude beach and how it takes him a while to get used to the no clothes but when he does it liberates him, like he is baring his soul and later when he goes back to civilization he’s walking down the street and thinking about all the people he passes and how he knows them and who they really are because he’s seen them naked and he’s seen their soul.

[Tab]

How many years ago did you listen to the audiobook?

Was this fiction or non-fiction?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Rosana left the group. Moving to Abandoned.