(no subject)

[hear_the_voices]

Anna has cake.

This is good.

Anna has a book entitled Fifty Nifty Science Fair Projects.

This is also good.

Anna has a pad for taking notes and writing down Ideas.

This, too, good.

Anna has forgotten to get a pencil.

This is . . . not good.

Comments

[ohnoitsjools]

"Oh, you got a notebook too!" an English accent exclaims from behind her.

Jools holds up a slightly beaten notebook of his own.

[hear_the_voices]

Anna turns around.

"Yes. They're very useful if you want to write things down."

Beat.

"I'm Anna."

[ohnoitsjools]

"Yeah, I write things in mine, too."

Jools flips open to a page with very detailed instructions on how to make tea.

"Oh, uhm. I'm Jools."

He smiles widely.

[hear_the_voices]

"It's very nice to meet you, Jools," Anna says.

She leans forward to read the tea-making instuctions.

"Are you just learning about tea?"

[ohnoitsjools]

"Oh, no," Jools says, shaking his head. "Guppy's also helping me get registered with a GP. It's kinda hard."

[hear_the_voices]

"Who's Guppy? And what's a GP?"

Details, please.

[ohnoitsjools]

"He's that nice doctor here," Jools says.

Then he shrugs. "And... I don't know."

[hear_the_voices]

Anna makes a mental note: There is a nice doctor. Names after a fish.

"Then why do you want to register with one?"

[ohnoitsjools]

Jools thinks about that.

"Because Guppy said I should."

He scratches his head.

[a1enzo]

Enzo has chips. They look a great deal like little square circuitboards.

They are very crunchy.

"Hey! How's it going?"

[hear_the_voices]

"Hi.

"It's good, thank you.

"How are you?"

[a1enzo]

"I'm good." He grins. "My sister loved your cookies."

[hear_the_voices]

"Oh, good," says Anna.

"I'm glad she liked them.

"Thank you for buying some."

[a1enzo]

"No prob. She was all set to be mad at me for spending so much, 'til I told her they were like Pathfinder cookies but with chocolate. Then I wasn't sure I'd got enough after all."

Since he'd had difficulty seeing over the armful of boxes he did in fact buy, this was probably not an actual concern.

[hear_the_voices]

"You got an awful lot, so it was probably enough," Anna says, thinking back.

[a1enzo]

"Yeah, she said it was fine."

It's good to know your sister's weak points.

"Do you get stuff if you sell enough cookies? I know the Network Pathfinders do."

[hear_the_voices]

"Yeah. There are prizes. And a patch for our sash.

"Plus we raise money for our troop, and then we get to do fun stuff."

[wordofa_sayre]

The title of her book gets an approving grin from him as he draws near her table.

"Another budding scientist, eh? Good show."

[hear_the_voices]

Anna looks up.

"I haven't actually decided what I want to be yet. This is for school -- we all have to do a science fair project. Though it's not really a show, like a play or something. The things mostly just sit on tables, and occasionally some of them have demonstrations.

"Are you a scientist?

"I'm Anna."

[wordofa_sayre]

"All the best kinds of experiments have demonstrations. It's much more interesting and fun to do something applied than to muck about all the time in the clouds with anything theoretical," Nick tells her.

"I am, indeed, a scientist." He sketches a whimsical bow. "Nick Sayre, at your service."

[hear_the_voices]

Were Anna aware of certain things, she would most wholeheartedly agree with you, Mr. Sayre.

Perhaps at a later date.

". . . I don't think I could get to the clouds," Anna says, thoughtfully. "I'd need a plane. Unless you mean fog, when the clouds are on the ground. Then you can just walk through them.

"What kind of science do you do?

"And you don't have to be at service here. That's what the rats are for. They're really clever and very nice."

[wordofa_sayre]

"Not too many your age would have the presence to think of fog as a ground-bound cloud," he says, delighted all over again.

Nick reaches for a chair and drags it out, then sits down in it and props his elbows on the table, looking thoughtful.

"I'm a -- well, to tell you the truth I'm interested in all sorts of things about the natural world and how it works, how birds fly and what makes plants grow in seasons in different ways and especially how things are put together and function and get energy, such as lightning-- it's amazing what you could do with that sort of power, if you could only harness it--"

He's becoming more and more enthusiastic as he talks, but finally her last statement catches up with him and brings him to a halt.

"Rats? Come again?"

[hear_the_voices]

Anna listens to all this very carefully.

"Have you tried trying a key to a kite? That had something to do with lightning, I think, and electricity. Benjamin Franklin did that."

Anna's never been terribly clear on why.

On the other hand, one thing she can explain is . . .

"The waitrats," she says, waving at one as it goes by. "They serve the food here. And the drinks. You just them for what you want and they bring it. They're really, really smart. They never mess up orders."

[wordofa_sayre]

"It draws it," he says. "The metal, that is. Attracts the electricity; lightning's made of it, and if you put the metal up where it is in the sky..."

He spreads his hands as if to indicate a point proven, then promptly leans back on the table again and grins at her.

"Really?"

The rat that Anna had signaled scurries over and squeaks, and Nick startles, then looks down at it.

"Squeak?" he tries.

[hear_the_voices]

Anna gives him a look.

Seriously, Nick? Squeak? Seriously?

"I think he's new," Anna says, to the rat.

"Could I have some hot chocolate, please?" she adds. The rat nods and then turns to Nick.