Alison, offense neglect

Alison discovered at an early age that there was something different about her. Another girl on the playground shoved her into the dirt, giving her a scrape on the hand and a bruise. Alison immediately started crying, and the teacher dutifully ran to attend to her.

The usual disciplinary procedures were followed, including making her bully apologize. She replied that the girl had done nothing wrong, but her teacher insisted that she recognize the harm done so that she could properly forgive the other girl.

It quickly became apparent that Alison really believed that the other girl had not acted maliciously in any way. The teacher shrugged it off, but after a few similar incidents a therapist was brought in.

The therapist was unable to get Alison to admit that she had been wronged at any point. Soon after the therapist came a psychologist, then a psychiatrist, then a neurologist. Eventually it was determined that Alison had a neurological deficit. She was unable to register any action taken against her as malicious in any way.

She could still feel pain and displeasure. She could recognize benevolent actions from those around her. There was simply a disconnect between bad things happening and people causing them.

For the rest of her life, that meant relying on people she trusted to prevent others from taking advantage of her. In high school, a boy was caught groping her in the hall. It turned out this was only the latest in a series of similar incidents, only uncovered because a teacher happened upon them. Another time a girl reached into her purse and stole all of her money; when questioned, she could recall the incident and expressed regret that her money was missing but didn't blame the other girl any more than if she had accidentally dropped it down a storm drain.

In time, she grew to understand on some level the things that were happening. Though she would never truly comprehend that someone could do something malicious to her, she trusted her friends and family to alert her when she was in danger because of her condition.