worth an oat

[alicornucopia]

In this soup kitchen sits a nun in partial habit, sipping water and frowning at a desk. It is very irregular for adults who aren't volunteering to be at the soup kitchen. It is very irregular for expensive electronics to be in the soup kitchen. The volunteers do seem to know her; they call her "Carlotta".

Comments

[pythbox]

A tiny child approaches her. He is definitely the smallest child in the soup kitchen, and probably also the youngest, but he's so small that if he were the age he looks at first glance he wouldn't be able to move around as well as he does.

He stops nearby and stares at her, perfectly expressionless.

[alicornucopia]

She notices him after a moment and peers down to look at him. "Hello there."

[pythbox]

"Hello," he says. "What are you doing here?"

[alicornucopia]

"Well," she says, "it turns out the person I was here to meet is gone, so I'm passing the time until I can get a flight the next place I had in mind."

[pythbox]

He looks at her for a second, still with that expressionless face, and then says, "Was it Achilles?"

[alicornucopia]

"...Yes, actually. Some of my friends told me that he'd - civilized the streets."

[pythbox]

"Achilles was a figurehead. The idea was mine," says the tiny child in a perfectly flat voice.

[alicornucopia]

"Really."

[pythbox]

"It's hard for people to believe I could be useful, but I don't understand why. The crew wouldn't feed me if I wasn't."

[alicornucopia]

"There are other reasons to feed people."

[pythbox]

"Not before, there weren't. Now everyone can get into the soup kitchen, so everyone can afford to be nice. But I wouldn't have lived long enough to see it if I hadn't been the one who made it happen."

[alicornucopia]

"How did you make it happen, then?"

[pythbox]

"They were supposed to get a bully alone, knock him down, and threaten to kill him unless he guarded them and helped them. They made a bad choice. It should have been someone strong but easy to convince. But Achilles worked out all right. His bad leg made people pity him, which got us the best spot in line until all the other bullies went and found groups of smaller children too."

[alicornucopia]

"I heard the soup kitchen gets enough donations to feed all of you now, though, because people think that's so nice the way you've all organized."

[pythbox]

"Yes. It's useful. What did you want to talk to Achilles about?"

[alicornucopia]

"Your idea," says the nun, "since I thought it was his, and how he came up with it, and what he was going to do next."

[pythbox]

"Why?"

[alicornucopia]

"It was a very smart thing to come up with, and it would have been hard to convince enough people to get it going the way it has. That sort of talent is useful."

[pythbox]

"Useful for what?"

[alicornucopia]

"Well, anything, really; it would depend on what he most wanted to do. I talk to a lot of schools and try to find students for them in places they wouldn't usually look."

[pythbox]

The tiny expressionless child smiles at her.

It isn't very much of an improvement.

[alicornucopia]

"Do you think you would like to go to school?"

[pythbox]

"Yes."

[alicornucopia]

"Well," she says, "I did bring a lot of tests with me that will tell me what sorts of things you're best at, if you would like to take them."

[pythbox]

"That sounds like fun," he says, continuing to smile.