Page 341 - Enders_Game_Full_Book

"Papa's gone now," said Miro comfortingly. "You don't have to worry now."
Ender shook his head. "Miro," he said, "didn't you watch Olhado's memory? Little boys don't judge their fathers, they love them. Grego was trying as hard as he could to be just like Marcos Ribeira. The rest of you might have been glad to see him gone, but for Grego it was the end of the world."
It had not occurred to any of them. Even now it was a sickening idea; Ender could see them recoil from it. And yet they knew it was true. Now that Ender had pointed it out, it was obvious.
"Deus nos perdoa," murmured Ela. God forgive us.
"The things we've said," whispered Miro.
Ela reached out for Grego. He refused to go to her. Instead he did exactly what Ender expected, what he had prepared for. Grego turned in Ender's relaxed grip, flung his arms around the neck of the Speaker for the Dead, and wept bitterly, hysterically.
Ender spoke gently to the others, who watched helplessly. "How could he show his grief to you, when he thought you hated him?"
"We never hated Grego," said Olhado.
"I should have known," said Miro. "I knew he was suffering the worst pain of any of us, but it never occurred to me..."
"Don't blame yourself," said Ender. "It's the kind of thing that only a stranger can see."
He heard Jane whispering in his ear. "You never cease to amaze me, Andrew, the way you turn people into plasma."
Ender couldn't answer her, and she wouldn't believe him anyway. He hadn't planned this, he had played it by ear. How could he have guessed that Olhado would have a recording of Marc o's viciousness to his family? His only real insight was with Grego, and even that was instinctive, a sense that Grego was desperately hungry for someone to have authority over him, for someone to act like a father to him. Since his own father had been cruel, Grego would believe only cruelty as a proof of love and strength. Now his tears washed Ender's neck as hotly as, a moment before, his urine had soaked Ender's thighs.
He had guessed what Grego would do, but Quara managed to take him by surprise. As the others watched Grego's weeping in silence, she got off the bed and walked directly to Ender. Her eyes were narrow and angry. "You stink!" she said firmly. Then she marched out of the room toward the back of the house.