No, no one hits her, she’s never been hit, the problem is that they won’t leave her alone. The only thing she wants, she insists, is to be left alone, but there’s no hope of that. These days, all the teachers want to evaluate their students through group projects, but Soon doesn’t feel comfortable working with anyone. When the kids break into groups she’s inevitably left out, and the teacher has to intervene to keep her from being excluded. For her, it’s worse to be forced into a group than to do the work alone. Her classmates look at her distrustfully just because she’s been imposed on them. And Soon isn’t one to be assertive and make herself useful, she just clams up, which doesn’t help at all. She doesn’t mind doing the assignments herself, she’s never been lazy at schoolwork. She tells her teachers this—begs them, even—but they never listen, they insist she be part of the group, even if they have to force her. The groups always have one person who calls the shots, who manipulates the others just for the pleasure of dominating. Supposedly the teachers use these groups to promote equality—they use that expression: promote equality—but what they do is just the opposite: weaken the weak and strengthen the strong. It’s not the same as getting hit, of course, but still …

Of course it’s not the same, says Old Man. Her problem is worse! And he knows what he’s talking about, he can compare! In the hospital where he stayed a while back they were also constantly forming groups. Reading groups, gardening groups, sports groups. And board game groups! They passed him from one to the other, and it never worked. They wanted to keep him entertained, but it all only depressed him. He just wanted to go out walking at night! You can walk, they told him, but only at authorized hours and only on authorized paths. But everyone was out walking on authorized paths at authorized hours, all the patients were there, forced to see and greet each other, and what he wanted was to walk alone. It was torture! Soon is at a loss for words as she listens. She doesn’t know what hospital Old Man is referring to, what paths or what patients, until she dares to ask: were you sick? Old Man shrugs and replies: so they said!

Among birds, at least in some species, there are also dominant and dominated groups. It’s not a decision they make freely: nature itself marks them when they’re born—they come with different feathers! Needless to say it’s the dominant birds who get the tastiest morsels and the healthiest females, who decide when to fly and to where the flock must follow them. There was one experiment where some scientists wondered what would happen if they camouflaged the weakest, made them pass for dominant. They dyed their feathers to disguise them! But it didn’t work at all. The very attitude of the fakers gave them away; it wasn’t a matter of plumage, but of demeanor.