I like to think Alex is a little more normal — or, like everyone else, manipulative — than might first meet the eye. Most obviously, there are the exchanges that go like this:
“Crackers?”
“How about pretzels, Alex?”
“How about crackers?”
or
“Alex, we can buy one book today. One book.”
“Buy two books?”

That’s just wheeling dealing; that’s just how everyone gets through the world, and it’ll be great to see develop, just like it would be in a “normal” kid, until it inconveniences me. I know he understands stuff, too, but just doesn’t let on he knows. Like it takes dynamite to wake him at …read more