Dave Dave died of natural causes after setting a fire as a boy.

A nightmare that has haunted David since he was 6 years old wakes him up about once a week.

He is being chased down the street by a madman.His pursuer is not a faceless person.Seven years ago, Charles set him ablaze in an Orange County motel room and left him to die.

When David wakes up screaming, his mother, Marie, and his stepfather, Richard Hafdahl, do their best to comfort him.The burns that ravaged 90 percent of his body left him with no fingers or toes.They whisper words of encouragement as they rock him.

Hafdahl, an Orange County police officer who was in charge of the fire investigation and married Marie in 1988, says that there's no way his father will hurt him as long as she and he are alive.

Will I ever see him again?David would be afraid to ask.Marie and Richard are not so sure lately.

Charles was paroled after serving six years of his sentence for attempted murder.He wants to see his son.

The Hafdahls are worried.One of his few friends on the outside says thatRothenberg is being returned to society with a minimum of counseling.Three months was the length of visits with a therapist.

Although prison officials say they have no proof that he is a menace to society, he still harbors rage and resentment.

There is a mystery as to whereRothenberg will be released.He didn't give any pre-release interviews.He will be taken from the grounds of the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo to an undisclosed location.

The Hafdahls won't know his exact location.All we can say is that he won't be released in Southern California.

Hafdahl says that they are afraid of tipping off the media.They are trying to eliminate a circus atmosphere.

The story of Lawrence Singleton, paroled from the same San Luis Obispo facility two years ago, is a textbook example of how an enraged community can make life hell for a convict they feel has not been punished enough.In 1979 he was convicted of kidnapping and raping a young woman, hacking off her forearms with an ax, and tossing her in a muddy ditch.The girl lived and was sentenced to the maximum penalty for attempted murder.He was paroled in 1987.

He met his Northern California release with a loud protest.The citizens held up placards that said ''Rapist'' and marched in front of his door.

''Devil.''He was forced back into the hands of the corrections system after they threatened his life.He spent the rest of his parole in a mobile home on the grounds of the state prison.

They are steeling themselves.Hafdahl says they're terrified he's going to show up.The couple received a letter from a fellow prisoner.

Hafdahl says the word was that we'd better watch out.If Marie and Richard are killed in an auto accident, will he have custody of David?

Charles and Marie Siderowicz were married in 1975.He was 34 while she was 25.They were married for three years.

Marie Hafdahl said her first husband was from a troubled family.He claimed that his mother was a sex worker who abandoned him at the orphanage.

Marie Hafdahl says that Charles was obsessed with the child from the beginning.He spent most of his earnings on gifts for his little boy, who was blessed with his father's dark good looks.

After David's birth, the marriage began to break down.He was in trouble with the law a lot.He was sentenced to two years in jail for forgery in 1978.Marie decided she had had enough.After he began serving his time, she divorced him.

She didn't take David to see his father during his two years of confinement because she thought it would be bad for the child.

When he was released from jail, he had regular access to his family.He made a living at odd jobs but still had run-ins with the law.The one bright spot in his life was his son.

He picked up David for a weeklong stay at his house, a few blocks from Marie's Brooklyn apartment.He was about to be arrested for stealing from a Manhattan restaurant.They vanished during the week.

Marie told him that he would never see his son again if he came back to her.He hung up.He took David with him to a hardware store where he bought an $8.47 jug of kerosene.

Rothenberg gave his son a sleeping pill to knock him out.He put David in the middle of the bed and doused the linens.After kissing David on the cheek, he threw a lighted match in his son's direction, closed the door and sprinted for his car.From the parking lot of a hotel across the street, he watched as a huge explosion blew the door off a room.

David doesn't remember anything except the smell of gas and his first cry for help.Hotel guests got to him first.They cried when they saw his charred body, which was blisters and peeling.He was the one who called the fire and hospital officials.

He was on the run for a week and called the police multiple times.He confessed to police after his arrest in San Francisco.Nobody can if I can't have him.He was sentenced to 13 years.

The verdict was announced by Judge James Franks in a quavering voice.

The reaction to David's face and body is mixed.Some of his classmates watched the 1988 ABC television movie based on his story, showering him with the kind of reverence reserved for celebrities.Others call him names.

He is similar to any other 13-year-old boy.He likes recess, sports, pizza and Coke.

Hafdahl wants to tell you something about David.Initially, he was in the gym class.After about a month, he went to the teacher and said he wanted to be in the regular class.They let him go.

David has amazed everyone.He wasn't supposed to make it.He is thriving even though he is self-conscious about his appearance after more than 50 operations.He looked in the mirror for the first time after the fire and said he looked like a monster.He underwent physical therapy for seven years to keep his limbs mobile.His doctors told him to swoop up and down his suburban block on his skateboard.

The skin that gave him back his nose, lips and ears is still there.The skin strips from the 10 percent of his body that was not burned do not expand like normal skin.David will need to have a skin transplant every 18 months or so until he stops growing.

The rehabilitation of Charles Rothenberg has been different.According to Kindel, he worked in prison landscaping and on trash pickup chain gangs.

According to those who know him, he has a lot of information on David and Marie.He has a copy of Marie's book, the basis for the TV movie.He hides it from other inmates.

Yvonne and her husband are one of the few people who have been in contact with him outside of prison.

The Willises are born-again Christians.After reading about his crimes in the papers, they began visiting him in jail.

Yvonne says the Lord wanted her to minister to Charles for the past seven years.We did not condone what he did, but we wanted to help him find the Lord.

Marie Hafdahl doesn't believe in salvation.He's used religion before.He became a Jew after he was arrested for forgery.

He was a model prisoner according to Kindel.He tried to mail a letter to Marie while in prison, but was caught.He made a plea to his ex-wife for forgiveness.

The letter to the Los Angeles Times was also remorseful.Do I deserve to be free?He wrote.No!It is an unforgivable act.

The two of them had several talks in which he talked about his hopes for the future.He said he would love to see David.It would have to be David's decision.

California law has changed since he was sentenced.13 years was the maximum sentence for attempted murder.According to Kindel, the department has exhausted all of its options and is forced to release him because he is legally eligible for parole and has not been able to prove that he plans to contact David.

The Hafdahls refuse to specify the security measures they have taken because they are not allowed to.