It is something more interesting and more useful to understand, which is that the entire architecture of a certain kind of life is built to prevent the sentence from ever being said out loud.

I found out later — much later, in a deposition — that the woman in that office wrote a note about the call, because it was the third slightly odd thing about Nell Brannock’s attendance that autumn, and because school administrators in Connecticut are mandated reporters and are trained to write notes.

She had, in fact, already flagged it, eight days earlier, to the school counselor, who had a meeting scheduled with Nell for the following Monday that I knew nothing about.

I have thought about that too.