Story 4: Foolishness Is Bound in the Heart of a Child Summary

Jeremiah meets his young uncles and his grandfather. Aaron, a boy not much older than him, encourages Jeremiah to sing lyrics he has learned from a punk rocker boyfriend of his mother's. The lyrics have to do with the anti-Christ and anarchy, and about being too drunk to make love. The songs come from the Sex Pistols and the Dead Kennedys. Aaron tells Jeremiah to sing the songs for his grandfather, who is a fundamentalist preacher. After taking a very hot bath during which one of his other uncles roughly scrubbed Jeremiah's genitals raw, Jeremiah's grandfather calls him into a study that contains a desk and bookshelves.

Jeremiah innocently sings the songs that Aaron has encouraged him to perform and complains about the heat of...