The child smiled in response to his words and moved forward confidently, scrambling up the small ladder leading to the entrance with eagerness and unintelligible sounds. Theodore smiled as he saw the way his peer was rushing to get into the building. Lars pulled his hand out of his son's small palm. So much so that he lost his balance from surprise and fell to the pavement. After which the man said: ‘That's it, go. You know the way. We were here yesterday.’ Lars turned his back on his son and silently headed in the opposite direction, leaving the child alone. Theodore, dressed in a grey summer jumpsuit at first, didn't understand what had happened and looked at his father with bewilderment, who soon disappeared from sight. Parents of other children passing by him began to pay attention to the child and stop with questions: ‘Whose boy are you? Where are your parents? Are you here alone?’
One of the mothers helped Theodore up off the ground and took him inside the centre, where the group assignment and introduction to the teachers had already begun.
Right in front of the entrance, not far from the principal's office, were happy parents waving to their children, who had already been assigned to groups and assigned to specific teachers. A couple of metres away from the parents were three rows of newly formed children's groups, headed by teachers. Between the parents and children, on a small step, the headmistress of the centre stood on a small step, solemnly announcing the names of the newly arrived students and then assigning them to a teacher.
The mother who had brought Theodore inside the building squeezed through the crowd of adults and turned to the director, pointing her finger at the child and explaining that she had found him near the entrance to the CEC. The director descended from her low stepladder and bending over the lost boy said: ‘Say, what's your name? Remember, we saw you yesterday. And we were sitting in this office.’ She pointed her finger at the door leading into her small office. Theodore turned his head in the direction she pointed. He wasn't frightened or agitated. He just couldn't understand what was wanted of him. The headmistress straightened to her full height and began to glance cursorily at the long piece of paper from which she had previously sounded out the list of enrolled kids.