By the seventh grade, A. Michael is the pet of the science teacher and just a another student to the English teacher. Although his papers are technically correct, the topics he chooses bore her to tears. Michael never participates in discussions in class. The only “discussions” he enters are one-on-one conversations with the science teacher, and even then A. Michael is condescending. His worst assignment is to write a sonnet. He writes it, “Paean to Pythagoras,” as a strictly mathematical construct. It is correct, but reads like an equation--heartless, soulless. He gets an A. His dad loves it and posts it at work. A. Michael continues to learn to excel and not to connect.
In high school, he begins to collect the animals that make up his menagerie. He acquires them as his fascination with his biology teacher, Miss Wilson, begins to intensify. She knows more about things that interest him than anyone else he has ever met. When she talks about characteristics that are best exemplified in X animal, A. Michael acquires X animal to see for himself. Miss Wilson understands A. Michael in ways that his parents cannot, his other teachers will not, and he does not.
When Uncle Father (Stuart) visits and tries to engage A. Michael in theological discussions, he finds his nephew passionless and uninvolved. Stuart’s own passion is not even acknowledged. A. Michael does not understand how religion can be anything but a task one does because one must.
In high school, A. Michael belongs to the National Honor Society, Chemistry Club, Physics Club, Math Club, and Chess Club. He is never elected to any office in any club. A. Michael does not date in high school, but Aaron and Reecca don’t worry about that because they recognize their son is a late-bloomer.
(continued)
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