When you're messed with as a kid it does something to you. Whether you "deal with it" or not some things just cannot competely heal. The boy in Howard's Tale doesn't talk about what happened to him, and the song itself isn't descriptive; however, he does still try to put his experience behind him. Like with the woman down the street when he's 16. Unfortunately that failed attempt at erasing the painful scars of the past merely leaves him feeling frustrated and inadequate. Still unable to properly cope or even let someone else know what happened to him, his problems intensify. The song's last stanza reveals the harowing reality of what can happen when such a tortured mind is left to its own devices. Desperate for solace, the boy, now a 19 year old man, resorts to what he must see as his last possible option; Re-enacting his horrible ordeal, only this time another little boy will play the victim, finally giving himself a sense of power, authority, and control.