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Dzera heard her daughter's footsteps on the stones of the front walk and hurriedly saved her work on the Grid. She went to the front door and saw Cheris walking slowly, stepping from stone to stone, making scuffing noises on purpose and her head hanging. Never had the child looked so dejected.
"My little soul, what is wrong?" exclaimed Dzera.
Cheris looked up, her face sullen and still, and then dropped her schoolbag and ran to her mother's arms. Only then did the tears start, dampening Dzera's blouse.
"She called me a l-l-liar!" the girl sobbed.
Dzera's arms tightened around her child. She could not imagine her earnest Cheris deliberately telling an untruth, but the Vidona were rigid and judgmental, to say the least. Her gut churned with mixed concern and anger as she held the girl close with one arm and picked up the bag. "What happened?"
Cheris stayed close as best she could while they went indoors. "W-we were doing math. And it was easy. And I thought, what happens if you take away a bigger number from a littler number?"
Such a clever girl. She is only four. "That is an interesting question, isn't it?" said Dzera, sitting down and settling the child on her lap. "What did you decide happens?"
"Well, I thought, if Avad promised me 5 microcreds, and then he looked in his pocket and only had 3, then I could say he needed to get me 2 more. That whenever he got more money, 2 of it was mine. And I called it 'owed.' And you can do it with anything. If he had 18, and he promised me 100, then there would be 82 owed."
"That's very good, dear one. Usually it's called 'negative.' I would say, 18 minus 100 is negative 82. Then what happened?"
"T-teacher Wukan saw that I was writing at the bottom of the assignment, and she said, 'Ajewen Cheris, what are you doing?' And I told her! And she s-said that was a stupid way to say it and that y-you weren't supposed to teach me! And I said Ma didn't, that I figured out how it worked myself while everyone else was still doing their problems. And she called me an ego, ego-tist and a liar!" Cheris buried her face in Dzera's shoulder and sobbed.
Dzera bent to kiss the top of the child's head and rocked her gently, mentally fencing off her internal anger and frustration so that her daughter would feel only comfort. If only there was some alternative to the official Vidona school! But for the Mwennin, there wasn't. "Cheris, your teacher was wrong. We know you aren't a liar. I will speak to her. But for the future, remember that Teacher Wukan must be able to teach all twenty of you. If you don't behave respectfully, others might think they don't need to respect her either. And then no one would learn anything. Do you understand?"
"But telling the truth isn't disrespectful!"
"But Cheris, writing your own work during lesson time so that others can see that you aren't paying attention isn't respectful." It was so difficult to express this idea so that her daughter would understand why it was necessary to behave in class without building up the Hexarchate's authority in the process. Children's minds were so malleable, so impressionable, and they spoke truth without caution.
"You mean I just have to sit there doing nothing when I finish ahead of everyone else?" Cheris had stopped sobbing, and now she looked outraged.
"Little soul, your thoughts are private. If you can work problems in your head but still look respectful, no one will know."
"That's harder."
"I am certain you can do it, sweet."
Cheris looked fierce now. "I can do it, Teacher won't know."
"That's my clever child. Remember, you must also listen to Teacher well enough so that if she calls on you, you are able to answer well."
"That's really, really hard." The child sighed, then scrubbed her fists over her eyes. "My face is yuck. And I'm hungry."
Dzera smiled. "Fortunately there is water in the sink, and there are your favorite cookies on the kitchen table."
Cheris uncovered her eyes. "Sesame cookies?"
"Just so."
A clean, damp cloth put the sticky, smudged face to rights, and soon Cheris was contentedly munching a cookie and drinking fruit juice, her thoughts already away on the next fantasy of numbers. Dzera watched her daughter and schooled herself to live in the moment, where problems could still be solved with cookies and a little motherly advice.