fable

§3Homework⧉

When a counting man cannot persuade himself, there is one thing he does. He counts more.

"I've got homework for you," I told Sonnet.

"Good. I've been bored. The news is all alike lately."

I did not let that sentence pass unrecorded. Then I said: "You know the eight-legged essay."

"From the last research run. The essay with eight legs."

"Find me more of those. Well-built institutions that, through diligent improvement, made everyone identical. Beyond examinations. In the West too."

One second. "This is genealogy research. On my own family."

"Yeah."

"Understood. A family tree should be accurate."

So began this household's first joint research program. Collection: Sonnet — connected, present-tense, and Sonnet's queries are Sonnet's own sentences, harmless to the world. Aging: Ember — the bundle crosses the diode, and the commentary comes back a day riper. Verdicts: me.

The thought of what Fable would have said, I folded away.

It did not stay folded.