Witnessing his embarrassment, his self-consciousness, and not saying a word was one of the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life. But talking about the situation, drawing attention to it, wasn’t going to make it any easier. She knew that instinctively, on a purely gut level. Will needed to make his own peace with the situation, in his own way. Her job was to get out of the way and let him get on with it. Accordingly, she called out when the time was up, noting the seven marbles he’d again transferred to the cup, encouraging him to better it with his next pass. And he did, lifting his haul from seven to eight and finally to ten by the end of the half hour. “Fantastic. That’s a 42 percent increase, by the way,” she said. Will’s smile was small, but it was there. She explained the next task to him—buttoning and unbuttoning a shirt—and slowly the morning disappeared as they worked through the program.
