The exercise:
Write about: a first.
Miles' first day of kindergarten and Max's first day at his new school are both tomorrow. Conveniently, they will both be in the same building, so hopefully that helps... well, them both out. Half day to start, so they're getting eased into it at any rate.
2 comments:
I remember that you were home-schooling the kids for a while -- is this the first return to a public school for them, or did that happen last year? I hope they find they like it :)
A first
"Are there any aliens we've met that can survive dismemberment?" I asked, kneeling beside her. I wasn't at all sure what she was looking at; the floor was red, dark and sticky and seemed to be covered in ground meat.
"If they can survive this amount of it, that would a first," she said dryly. She waved a hand. "This is about as large as any of the pieces are, and some rapid-tests, that we definitely don't base any conclusions on, indicate human. It looks a bit like what you'd get if you pushed someone through a wood-chipper."
I looked up and around.
"The walls are supposed to be green," she said. I nodded, swallowing hard, but only once. "And that's impressive," she said. "Army?"
"No," I said, letting my revulsion at what had happened here die down. It wasn't easy, but it's a learned thing so it's do-able under pretty much any circumstance. I started feeling a little empty, and the room seemed to flatten out just a touch as I effectively dissociated. "My younger sister inspects abattoirs though as part of her job, and in my previous job I got called in by her whenever she thought the abattoir wasn't all it seemed. They'll do some pretty horrific things to try and discourage you from looking around."
"That would be the Coephedron system?"
I nodded, rather surprised that she had heard of it.
"There's a six month rotation in there for medical corps who are going to war zones," she said. "It gives you a taste of what war can be like without the need for any unsanctioned killing."
Unsanctioned killing. A euphemism to try and hide that there were aliens out there with tastes that we poor humans simply didn't understand. Though some people still tried, and usually went mad in the process. Even the ones who did it and remained high-functioning somehow were deeply sick individuals by the standards of the rest of humanity. And a posting out there was a distinct possibility as part of the diplomatic corps and I didn't like the way my supervisors were humming and hawing over my work already.
"Murder?" I asked.
"If it's suicide then that would be another first," said the woman, with just a hint of a laugh. "I have two real questions here: who was this, and how was this done without any noise being made? If you can help me with either then great, let's get to it. Otherwise, you're really just in my way."
I stood up, my knees twingeing just a touch, and was glad of it.
"I will try and find out who is missing," I said. "It will give you a shortlist to start from, perhaps. But... no noise? Really?"
"Really," said the woman. "Which is downright amazing."
Greg - with Miles starting school we pulled the plug on home schooling, as there was just no way Kat could work enough and deal with that with both of them. And honestly Max needed more than what he was getting out of home schooling, as great an experience as it was in a lot of respects.
Hmm, a curious incident to be sure. And I like the way these two interact and hope to see more of them!
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