Now and at the Hour - Martin Drapkin

Billy Malsavage is a young aide working at a state institution for people with intellectual disabilities in the early 1970s. One day a new resident, twelve-year-old Ricky, is wheeled into B Ward, victim of a serious brain injury suffered in a football game. Ricky can't walk or talk because of his accident, but his intelligence is unaffected. Buddy, one of the long-time ward residents, is a fifty-four-year-old man with cerebral palsy. He, too, is trapped in a body that doesn't work well, but his mind is also fine. Both Billy and Buddy feel bad for poor Ricky, and do what they can to cheer him up. Billy reads to Ricky and Buddy and shows funny movies. The three grow closer. As Ricky weakens and his physical condition worsens, he turns to his Catholic faith for solace. But can his faith help him in his desperation? Can anything?