FLK was marked on his permanent record. FLK stands for Funny-Looking Kid.
The boy did look odd. His nose looked like it had been broken and not reset. When he talked, he sometimes made a honking sound, as if he was holding his nose. Some of the bones in his arms were fused, and he had webbing between his toes. When he stood with his arms at rest, they hung about 5-6" from his sides. He couldn’t move his elbows through the normal range, so when he walked, he took up twice the space that he should have. His arms frequently hit things or people when space was tight. He had trouble holding down a piece of paper and writing on it at the same time, because he couldn’t bring his hands together without discomfort. Minor physical anomalies, a school social worker had written a few years back, along with a note about likely retardation.
That wasn’t all. At 7, he was the biggest kid in his second grade class, and his school was worried. A call requesting his evaluation had said little about his unusual physical anomalies. His school didn’t know what to do with him. They were scared of him, the principal had said. I had to test him, and I was warned he’d be dangerous.
Dangerous? A 7-year-old?
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