Karina nodded to the caretaker to signal she understood. After the caretaker left, she approached Dylan's desk.

Squatting down to his level, she looked at Dylan, who was fully absorbed in his block puzzle. "I know how to put this together. Would you like me to teach you?"

Dylan paused for a moment.

Karina pretended not to notice. "It's tricky, isn't it? And it seems like this block is part of a set. Are there more pieces somewhere?"

Dylan glanced at her, and Karina initially thought he would ignore her entirely.

To her surprise, he responded. "Yes, there are... in the room."

The sentence was short, but it was enough to make Karina's heart soar. Communication-even this little bit-meant there was hope.

*

*

She followed him to his room to retrieve the rest of the blocks, and the two of them spent the entire afternoon building together.

in a meal, placing it on the table

He showed

let

the method I was teaching you, but I haven't shown you the rest yet. Do you

hungry," Dylan replied almost immediately. But his stomach betrayed him with another growl. Karina chose not to point it out, instead nodding with understanding. "Alright. But I am hungry. How about we eat

taking on an unexpectedly adult expression,

wasn't surprised. She knew that some autistic children were exceptionally bright-some even showed signs of genius. But their brilliance often came at the cost of emotional barriers that kept them from

rushing him, giving him the time

Dylan finally set down the

the blocks together, and by evening, they had finally

clapping came from the doorway. Dylan jumped in surprise and looked up, startled to

director, caretakers, and even some of

the children gasped in admiration at

to play too! Can I, Director?" another

but you'll need

immediately ran up

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