I ask Doctor Beck not to lock my room anymore. “I will not run away,” I tell her. “I need to come and to go, like the rest of you. Do you understand?”

Doctor Beck stares at me. For a moment she sees me, not as a subject for her research, she really sees me. And then the open eyes shut again. But maybe not all the way.

“And the classroom too,” I say. “And the front door. No more locked doors, Doctor Beck.”

She explains to me about her money from the government. How the government has rules she must follow. How her job is to protect me. To keep me safe.

“Mila, it has to be this way.”

She reminds me about the time I swam in the night river and how sick that made me. “You’ve never fully recovered from that. Your health is still fragile.” She talks about gentle Mr. Aradondo, who refuses to clean the floor outside my room. “What would he say?”

“Doctor Beck, one time there was a dolphin who made life dangerous for the others. That dolphin was set apart to live alone. This is a very sad way for a dolphin. Dolphins love to be with other dolphins. Please do not set me apart anymore. I am not dangerous. I will teach you what I can, I will learn from you what I can, but you must unlock the doors. I will not play, I will not write in this journal, I will not eat, until you unlock the doors.”

“Mila, be reasonable. You’ve been losing weight ever since you came to us. You can’t stop eating.”

I am not listening.

“Mila.”

I am not listening.

“Mila!”

I AM NOT …