But the manual never lied. That was its cruel mercy.

“More?” Lena prompted. Neutral tone. No extra cues.

After Leo left—cape fluttering, mother hopeful—Lena sat with the manual. She began coding. Item B1: Unusual Eye Contact? Leo had looked at her hands, her watch, the bubbles. Rarely her eyes. Score 2. Item B4: Quality of Social Responses? He had responded, but often with tangential declarations about kings. Score 2. The algorithm began to darken.

She should have recorded “absent imitation.” But she wrote in her margin: Spontaneous offering. Idiosyncratic but intentional.

And she answered: “The manual doesn’t know everything.”