[PenultimateManStanding]

I subbed today for a class of mentally retarded kids. The teacher warned me about a few of the students: a couple of boys were autistic and tended to have internal dialogues which would make them angry. Then there was this senior girl with a woman's body and a child's mind who has caused problems by throwing herself at the boys on campus in a sexual manner. I was told not to let this girl out of my sight for even a second. I spent the morning reading from a book about dragons with one of the autistic boys and the teacher, who was present the whole time (making me wonder why he needed a sub) asked me for my phone number so he could call on me again since I had a way with the kid who is known to lash out. The girl, though, she's quite interesting. She had a kittenish manner about her, whispering and seductive, though she's obviously retarded in her behavior but not her looks. It reminded me of the episode in Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamozov. Sure enough, she was there with us in a walk about campus at the end of the day when a boy came by. She stepped in front of him and began talking to him in a way that made me think she knew him very well. But she didn't and a student aide who knows her better asked the boy, who was rapt in conversation with this girl, 'do you know her?' and he said 'no', took her aside. She was heavy onto me too, telling me that my eyes are pretty. My strategy was to talk loud and make her talk loud too. 'Just conversation'. What a day!

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

One of my nephews is autistic. they are a challenge and a hand full. He had an oral sensitivity and the only thing he would eat was a mixture of yogurt, pudding, pablum and bananas. He also refused to go poo or to the dentist. Such interesting worlds they occupy.