I am David

As the days pass, David becomes more and more comfortable in the house. He is listening to music, enjoying getting clean, and reading books, even when Maria's father, Giovanni, becomes amused when he insists on only reading books written before 1917, "...because he wanted to be sure that what was in it was true and not something THEY had made up."

David has trouble interacting with children his own age.

One night, as David is making plans to leave and continue on his journey, he overhears Giovanni and Elsa talking about him. Elsa says she will always be grateful to David for saving Maria's life but comments that she's afraid of him, doesn't understand him, is worried about the things he says to Maria about evil being in the world, and how Carlo is becoming more and more unhappy.

As he is going out the door, he is met by Maria, who has just awakened from a bad dream. He disregards her pleas that he stay but agrees to her request that he hug her; narration comments that this is the first time that he had touched someone of his own free will.