The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon

3.  My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057.

Eight years ago, when I first met Siobhan, she drew a picture of a face and I knew it was a “sad” face. Sad is what I felt when I found the dead dog. Then she drew a picture of another face and I knew it was a “happy” face. Happy is what I feel when I’m reading about the Apollo space missions or when I am still awake at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. in the morning and I can walk up and down the street and pretend that I am the only person in the whole world. Then she drew some pictures of some other sorts of faces, but I was unable to say what kind of faces they were. So, I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces on a piece of paper and write down next to them exactly what they meant. I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying. But it was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they were making because people’s faces move very quickly. So I tore the piece of paper up and threw it away. And now if I don’t know what someone is saying, I ask them what they mean or I walk away.