No, god no, it wasn't like that. They called them Children's Homes, and they get troubled kids and homeless kids and kids in the system like me. I stayed in places like that in between foster homes. And so many of them had nuns volunteering or running the place.

[The New England Catholic type, of which the majority seemed to be withdrawn and cold women who truly believed suffering was holy. It had been a trip, really. Only made all the worse by that revelation at twelve.]

The scary kind of nuns. They were not afraid to hit you. I did not miss any of that once I finally aged out. Never looked back.