978-1572305441

Frankie 167
This she did attentively and with great enthusiasm. Now her mother
had no trouble getting Heather to go to school. She woke up and got
ready for school without incident. Broken twigs still attracted her attention,
but there was no resistance at the entrance to the school, no hanging
on to the doors as she was being pulled into class. Each day, she
worked industriously on her cards, and when they were all done she
handed them out to all the children in the class. She was beaming with
pride, and of course the other children were thrilled to get these early
Easter cards—it was, after all, just March. The teacher was a little apprehensive
as to what Heather could work on next, but it turned out that
after Easter there is Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and so on. In fact the
greeting card industry has arranged it so that there are holidays needing
cards all year long! What luck! All this activity put Heather in a better
mood, and she was quite happy in class—no more hiding under the
desk, making funny noises, being abrasive and difficult with the teacher
or her teacher’s aide. In fact, she was in such a good mood that she was
able to make real progress in reading and basic arithmetic, a major accomplishment
that year.
* * *
Harry walked into the office one day rather proudly, bearing the
picture of a fish on his T-shirt. I asked him if he liked fish. “Oh, yes,” he
said, “very much.” Did he own fish at home? “Oh, yes, we have a fiftygallon
tank with lots of fish,” he said. What was his favorite fish? “A
puffer fish,” he said. What kind was it? I asked. “Puffer fish live in the
tropical and subtropical parts of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific
Oceans. There are about one hundred twenty species of puffer fish,” he
replied, not quite answering my question but leaving me impressed
with his knowledge of fish.
Harry was fifteen years old. He had dark hair down to his shoulders
that often covered his eyes. He would look at me with his head down,
not quite, but almost, avoiding eye contact. He always wore T-shirts
with pictures of tropical fish stenciled on them. He loved animals, especially
scaly ones, and he knew an extraordinary amount about the history
and breeding of various fish and reptiles. He had at least fifty
stuffed reptiles, dinosaurs, and fish covering his bed. They all had to be
arranged in perfect order before he went to sleep. While this was very
cute, it was perhaps a little inappropriate for a teenager. In fact, his
classmates teased him quite mercilessly for his immaturity.