In a darkened room, a 9-year-old boy lay on a mattress, loosely bound with a cloth rope. Occasionally, he jerked or twitched. Mostly he stared. His breathing was irregular. He was dying.
One week earlier, the boy had arrived fighting and gagging. For several days, his family grieved at his side as he writhed and choked at the mere sight of water. Now that he was so close to death, his parents had left to arrange the funeral.
