The Lost Boy begins in the winter of 1970, in Daly City, California. Dave Pelzer is nine years old and suffering from his mother’s abuse. He is hungry and cold as he sits at the bottom of the stairs in the garage. He feels like he is a prisoner of his mother, and the abuse has been going on for some time. He never gets enough food to eat and has to steal food at school. When he returns home his mother forces him to vomit in the toilet bowl to prove he did not steal any food. He is routinely beaten. He always sleeps on a cot in the garage. At weekends he gets no food at all. He is an outcast in his family, with his mother targeting him for abuse but not his brothers. He feels he does not deserve any long and thinks of himself as “a child called ‘It’.” At four o’clock in the afternoon, Dave listens to his drunken parents arguing about him upstairs. His father thinks Dave’s mother is too harsh on him, that no child deserves to be treated like that. He often tries to stand up to his wife but she takes no notice of him. She will not allow anyone else to tell her what to do.
She tells Dave to come upstairs. She makes him stand in front of her and tells him not to speak or move. He is familiar with this “game.” She grabs his ear, and then slaps his face because he moved. With his father standing by but not interfering, she asks Dave whether he agrees with his father that she treats Dave badly. He does not know whether he is allowed to respond. His father says that is no way to treat him, but his mother will not let go of his ear. She refers to Dave as “It” and tells him to get out of the house. His parents start to argue, with his father trying to defend him and tell his wife that she is wrong. She opens the front door and tells Dave he can leave if he thinks she treats him badly. He sees this as a chance to escape and he steps out of the door. His mother sneers that he will be back.
