Then one morning as they were preparing for a field trip a child bolted away into ongoing traffic, pelting the streets as he dodged cars. The teacher chased him, not as a well thought out implementation of his IEP, but as a gut reaction to a child who was hurting and running scared. She ran until her blouse was plastered to her chest with sweat, but when he eventually stopped, doubled over as he gulped in air, she was there. 

 

His eyes swelled in disbelief. In all the years he had run away from rejection, abandoning before he could himself be abandoned, no one had ever followed.

 

In the weeks that followed, this child whose files declared him as unattached and incapable of love, quietly held her hand. He whispered in her ear when no one was looking. 

 

"I love you."

 

There are people who run away from their spouses without stepping outside the door. They withdraw so completely their bodies are the only thing left in the room. Perhaps there are unexplainable reasons for the retreat.