Munmun(59)

“Warner,” he told me, “I’m glad we’re realtalking. You’re a smart kid and you might not think so but I like you, I genuinely do. And personally, I ofcourse agree with you, all kids deserve nice lives, not just the most gifted.”

His eyes got big and soft as he continued carefully, “But politically, and this is my field of expertise, remember, the story you propose is a story that voters just don’t love. Voters like results. And so the heart of my campainplatform, as it relates to poors, is to convince voters that helping poors brings results.”

“I can only stay if I bring results,” I asked.

“That’s how we get the most out of my daughter’s program,” he agreed.

I thought about the voters, tried to see me like the voters saw me, actually it wasn’t hard.

Nogood jailfish failing and flunking, drugging and thugging, who cares if he can read now or do mathbasics, congrats I guess on not being a total idiot, that’s still not results.

On one of the editscreens they were trying to find music for when Hue waves at people who are applauding him, rippling weepy music of a piano who thinks it’s a harp.

“So what happens next,” I said slowly, keeping my voice from squeaking or shrieking, I knew the moment I freaked out I would lose him forever.

Somehow as his words got harder the kindness deepened in his eyes.

“I am going to arrange rentfree government housing for you at a littlehouse in Eat for the rest of your time at school,” he said. “And ofcourse that housing will be chosen for its proximity to the school. Then, subsequent to your graduation you will be able to remain at the littlehouse, but a modest rent will be instated.”

My bones got shaky.

“You’re saying littlehouse though, I mean, can I atleast stay scaledup?” I asked. “I won’t be able to keep doing Lifty Track if I’m ratscale.”

His voice melted to a crackly whisper, so sad was this suited cityboss.

“Warner, a hunthousand munmuns can never be a gift,” he said. “It can only ever be a loan.”

I didn’t even want to ask about my sis, I knew I had to though, my blood felt poisoned, my heart felt weak.

“And what about Prayer,” I said.

He glanced at the door, will anyone overhear, no, okay, and said, “That’s a separate judgment that I’m not yet ready to make.”

“Why not,” I asked.

“I’ll be very candid with you,” he said. “Your sister does work hard, she does dream big, I do think she is getting the most out of herself. She has the laserfocus you’re talking about. But without a strong Wordy or Mathy background, her potenchill is always going to be pretty limited.”

I nodded, blinked back angry tears, forced a steady voice, hoped he had the patience to hear one last salespitch.

“Hue, give me one more chance,” I said. “You need results, noproblem, I will give you results. I’m one kid in a million.”

He leaned back and rubbed his tired crinkly forehead, please don’t make this hard.

“I will do whateverittakes,” I promised him. “Whateverittakes, I mean it. This last failure taught me what I need, there can be no mistakes or relaxing everagain. Fromnowon I will have the focus, reliability, highpowered brain. Hue, please think about it, it’s already crazy what I’ve learned, a few months ago I didn’t even know what math was and today I’m already passing atleast two testsections, you have to admit that’s progress. Give me one more chance to retrack, keep Prayer and I around meanwhile.”

He frowned, glanced away at his screens, stared back at me.

“Here’s a true story about littlepoors,” I told him, “they can give results but they need more than one chance, no one succeeds if only one door ever opened for them, Hue I know you’ve had a few doors opened for you, not just one, please open one more for me.”

He glanced again at a screen, murmured sorry, got to deal with this, tapped a pad and I began to lower.

“One more door,” I squeaked.

“I’ll think about it,” he lied.

But I had a hope left, I paced the sunroom anxiously waiting for her to come home.

“Bro are we okay, bro what’s going to happen,” demanded fretty Prayer.

“I don’t know I don’t know,” I said, shooing her frantically.

“I’m sorry but this is incredibly nerveracking,” yelled Prayer.

“Look, just go study, remind everyone what a learny maniac you are,” I told her, she hugged me fiercely and left.

Through a window I watched her laying out vidcarpet in a livingroom for all to see, Hue be honest, is this really what lowpotenchill looks like, a savvy businessgirl playing complicated graphs like a piano.

Kitty got home as the sky was pinking, I jumped up and waved.

She met me with cloudy eyes, squeezed the bunchy mouth into a frown, hid one squeezy hand inside her braidnest.

“I heard the news, Warner, I’m so sorry,” she said, seemed more hurt than sorry though.

“Look I know you’re disappointed that I failed,” I told her, “I just want to tell you, I don’t feel any kind of despair at all somehow, honestly just hope, I completely believe in myself, just like you always wanted.”

“Well okay, good,” she said uncertainly. “That’s the right attitude, for sure.”