"In Hiding by Wilmar H. Shiras" - читать интересную книгу автора (Willis Connie)

when asked who his friends were.
"What lessons do you like at school?"
Tim hesitated, then said: "English, and arithmetic . . .
and history . . . and geography," he finished thoughtfully.
Then he looked up, and there was something odd in the
glance.
"What do you like to do for fun?"
"Read, and play games."
"What games?"
"Ball games . . . and marbles . . . and things like that.
I like to play with other boys," he added, after a barely per-
ceptible pause, "anything they play."
"Do they play at your house?"
"No; we play on the school grounds. My grandmother
doesn't like noise."
Was that the reason? When a quiet boy offers explana-
tions, they may not be the right ones.
"What do you like to read?"
But about his reading Timothy was vague. He liked, he
said, to read "boys' books," but could not name any.
Welles gave the boy the usual intelligence tests. Tim
seemed willing, but his replies were slow in coming. Per-
haps, Welles thought, I'm imagining this, but he is too
carefultoo cautious. Without taking time to figure exactly,
Welles knew what Tim's I.Q. would beabout 120.
"What do you do outside of school?" asked the
psychiatrist.
"I play with the other boys. After supper, I study my
lessons."
"What did you do yesterday?"
"We played ball on the school playground."
Welles waited a while to see whether Tim would say any-
thing of his own accord. The seconds stretched into minutes.
"Is that all?" said the boy finally. "May I go now?"
"No; there's one more test I'd like to give you today. A
game, really. How's your imagination?"
"I don't know."
"Cracks on the ceilinglike those over theredo they look
like anything to you? Faces, animals, or anything?"
Tim looked.
"Sometimes. And clouds, too. Bob saw a cloud last week
that was like a hippo." Again the last sentence sounded like
something tacked on at the last moment, a careful addition
made for a reason.
Welles got out the Rorschach cards. But at the sight of
them, his patient's tension increased, his wariness became
unmistakably evident. The first time they went through the
cards, the boy could scarcely be persuaded to say anything
but, "I don't know."
"You can do better than this," said Welles. "We're going