the expressions that connect to nothing, the words nobody can answer — "Nobody in the vicinity could say…"
Nobody in the vicinity could say they heard Barry Loach respond one way or another to any of the strange moody things Hal was saying as Loach locked down the ankle for high-level play.
Context
The admissions-room condition seen from outside, months before it arrives: Hal's face already cycling through expressions with no traceable relation to the room (the smile-as-grimace mechanism idling), and his speech already producing no answerable response — the boys note that nobody could say Loach reacted to any of it, so the words simply fall into the tape-work and vanish. The self is broadcasting on a face and a voice that the surrounding people can neither read nor reply to.