He had been polite and had followed all her instructions, but he had given the impression of a profound unhappiness. He had not interacted with the other children. Although he had done the work assigned to him, he had done it without interest, merely as a task that had to be completed. He had not been able to engage in conversation with other children. He had not responded to their casual approaches, nor made any approaches of his own. On the playground, he'd kept to himself, merely pacing about the schoolyard, doing what she described as “nothing."
