In the Devil's Hands: Death Eidolons: Collected Short Stories 2014

Jermy Borden's seven short years on Planet Earth had already been filled with hardship, deprivation and heartache when, on the way to school one morning, his drunken mother drove their car into a neighbor's home, killing herself and a hamster named "Ted". Jermy somehow managed to claw his way out of the shattered rear window, leaving his hands badly burned and his fate in the hands of his only living relative, Gandy Ross, a hard-living ex-Marine with no children of his own.

This is either the worst thing to ever happen to him, or the best. Has fate left this young boy in the devil's hands?