Torey Hayden
Silent Boy
He was a frightened boy who
refused to speak – until a teacher’s
love broke through the silence
To S. K.
for teaching me to cherish the
brutal privilege of being human
Contents
Dedication
Zoo-boy. The legs of the table were his cage. With arms up protectively over his head, he rocked. Back and forth, back and forth. An aide tried to prod him into moving out from under the table but she had no luck. Back and forth, back and forth the boy rocked.
I watched from behind the one-way mirror. ‘How old is he?’ I asked the woman on my right.
‘Fifteen.’
Hardly a boy anymore. I leaned close to the glass to see him. ‘How long has he been here?’ I asked.
‘Four years.’
‘Without ever speaking?’
‘Without ever speaking.’ She looked over at me in the eerie gloom of the room behind the mirror. ‘Without ever making a noise at all.’
I continued to watch a little longer. Then I picked up my box of materials and went out into the room on the other side of the mirror. The