milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Here we find one Matilda, juggling a plate of fried pancakes, a very large physics book, and a smug expression. She sets the first two down on a table, sits, and lets the third continue to do its business while she combines eating with reading.
If anyone manages to glimpse the title, it is Everything There Is To Know About Light.

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"Oh, there's loads. More than I'd think could fit in a book, actually. The first chapter is all about colour and how it works. Terrifically interesting."

Shufti looks around.

"I've never thought about that before. How does colour work?"

"Well, it all has to do with wavelength. Kind of like sounds being higher or lower-pitched, colours have more or less energy. Red is the lowest and purple is the highest. If you look at a rainbow, you can see all the colours in order of wavelength. If you put all the colours together you get white, and if you split up white light you get all the colours again."

Look at the blank expression.

"What's a wavelength?"

"Not really something you need to know about unless you really want to study physics, but I can tell you if you like. I'd need a notebook though."

"I don't think I'd understand, but thanks anyway. You must be very clever to learn such things."

She tilts her head a little. "How old are you?"

"Okay then." She smiles.

"Almost six. I'm not sure when my birthday is now, because I've been in the bar for a long time and I don't know if I age while I'm here, but I'm going to keep saying almost six until I go back home and find out what date it is."

Shufti begins to feel rather stupid. Six? She couldn't tell the time when she was six, let alone learn how light worked.

"Are all six year olds as clever as you in your world?"

"..." She pauses. She's used to thinking of herself as just another little girl, but... "No, I guess not."

Shufti looks a little relieved.

"Most children don't learn to read where I come from."

"Everyone has to learn to read where I come from, but most children my age haven't yet."

"Even working children?"

"...Working children?"

Shufti nods.

"Like boot boys and washing girls."

Blink, blink.
"I don't think we have those where I come from. Adults work; children go to school and learn things."

"What's a school?"

"A place people go to learn things."

"We have the Girls' Working School, but I don't think it's the same thing."

"Probably not. I don't know what a Working School is, but there isn't much work involved in school where I'm from."

Shufti's eyes darken.

"I'm glad." she says quietly.

She notices the expression.

"Is the Girls' Working School a bad place?"

She can't help it, she's shaking.

"Yes." she whispers.

She walks up to Shufti and pats her on the hand. "The school I went to used to be a bad place, too. The woman who ran it picked a girl up by her hair and threw her over a fence once. But I got rid of her."

"I could get rid of the Girls' Working School too, if you liked." The offer is serious, though she doesn't have any idea what she's getting into.

"Lofty and Tonker are going to go back in the summer and burn it down. It's a right they've earned."

She puts her hand on her bump. "They took Lofty's baby away."

"Okay then."

"...That's horrible. Can I help burn it down?"