Richard at four: "A long time ago, when I was three ..."
Richard at five: "A long time ago, when I was three ..."
Richard at six: "A long time ago ... a very long time ago, when I was three ...."
~~~~~
"As you know," Connor said, "I am nearly seven --"
"The age of reason," FatSam agreed.
Connor paused. FatSam could see that he had prepared a statement, but now he hesitated. "What's that?"
"That's when you are responsible for your own behavior. According to the Catholics --"
"You were a Catholic when you were little."
"Yep," said FatSam. "I was actually an altar boy at my older sister's confirmation. Now --"
"What's an altar boy?"
"That's a boy who, during mass -- that's when people go to church, it's called mass," said FatSam quickly, to forestall the question he saw coming, "that's the boy who stands next to the priest and carries things for the priest, and hands the priest things and takes things from him when the priest wants him to."
FatSam waited while Connor absorbed this. He liked watching the boy think. "How come we don't ever go to church?"
"I don't go because I think the things they talk about in Church aren't true. Your mama used to go, but she stopped right before you were born because she was mad at the people who were running the Catholic Church. Some of the priests were ... doing very bad things to the boys and girls who went to church, and then lying about it, And the bosses of the priests, even though they knew the priests were doing bad things, didn't do anything to stop it or punish the bad priests. So she stopped going there."
"Did they do bad things to you when you were an altar boy?"
"Nope. Papa warned me about the priests, so I was careful and nothing bad happened to me."
"Well, I guess I'll be careful too, and not be an altar boy for any priests."
"Probably wise."
"Hey!"
"Yep?"
Connor took a breath. "OK. I am almost seven."
"The age of reason," FatSam agreed.
Connor stared at FatSam. "You keep interrupting!"
"I do," FatSam admitted.
"Don't interrupt any more."
"OK."
"When you're seven," said Connor in a rush, "which is the age of reason and you're responsible then you should get your own Nintendo DS for your birthday because you can take care of it."
"OK."
"Really? I can get it?"
"Me and Mama talked about it already. Yep."
"WOOHOO!" shouted Connor. "I'm gonna like being seven!"
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5 comments:
A new subtitle for your blog?
"Ceterum censeo Bostoninem esse delendam" -- which I think translates to: "Furthermore, I think Boston must be destroyed"
A little extreme, no? Plowing salt into the parquet flooring of the Bank North Garden?
I LOVE Conner's argument -- and I have two 11 year olds who (a) have been clamoring for a DS for ages, and (b) who I will keep from reading your post to my dying breadth so as to make sure he doesn't try that argument on me.
p.s. any more updates/samples on AI War?
Dan, nice to see you posting again. I appreciate that you've been busy, but not posting in over two months sort of defeats the purpose of a blog, no?
Getting to the point, when the hell can I walk into a Barnes&Noble, or some place as that, and actually see a title with your name on the shelf???
I'm looking forward to reading this in its entirety. My boy isn't even talking yet, and I already have this kind of interaction with him. :)
Welcome back to the internets. ;)
I've had the same problem finding hard copies of Dan's books since the early 90's ditmars. It's probably more of an issue to take up with publishers and distributors than any thing else. I managed to get a quietvision print of emerald eyes a few years ago, sadly it has fallen apart due to cheap glue.
I am repeating this from my post on your other blog. I do not know if you monitor that one. I can see that you might not bother with it.
However this is what I wrote:
Hi Dan,
I was looking for books by you when I was sent to SFF.net and Alan Rodgers web page. I read the latest posts from last week, and found this
http://webnews.sff.net/read?cmd=read&group=sff.people.alan-rodgers&artnum=8357
I suggest that you look at the bottom of this post for the "wanted poster" for you and Amy. This is from yesterday 03/27/09. Weird, creepy, and frightening. I know a little about domestic abuse and this stinks of it. I would not like to you and yours abused more.
From reading your comments of Steve Barnes' blog, I believe you.
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