Chapter 120: Day 119

Day 119,

Morning thought: Waking up to the sound of rain is a lovely thing.

 

Got lucky and the rain cleared up by the time Maiko and I finished breakfast, so I merely wound up with muddy boots rather than sodden clothes as I went out to the road to wait for James and company.  It was a longer wait than normal.  I suppose the rain delayed them as well.  And it’s not like they’ve got much to trade during the rainy season anyway.

When they did eventually show up I let James know that I actually wouldn’t be going into the Village today and to please pass that on to Cassandra.

He told me that I didn’t need to come all the way out just to tell him that.  They would have figured that was the case if I didn’t show up.

Perhaps, but I just smiled, shrugged, and said it seemed like the polite thing to do anyway.

He thanked me for the courtesy, flicked the reins, and got the cart moving on toward the main road.  Cass’s siblings and I waved to eachother until they rounded out of sight.  There were more of them piled on the cart than usual for market day, even accounting for Cass’s absence.  Lack of cargo and excuse to get out of the house I suppose.

Back at my own house, I’ll be giving Maiko the “demonstration of how I teach children to read” once she gets back.  She left the house the same time I did earlier, saying she was going to check on her boat.  Apparently it stormed relatively hard in the middle of the night.  I must have slept through it.

 

It’s funny how adults can get more frustrated than children when struggling with a task.  Well, maybe “funny” isn’t the appropriate word to use for something that’s obviously bothering her.  I suppose part of the difference is that for the kids it’s a new thing and they expect to be able to get it sooner or later, whereas for Maiko it’s trying to change a state that she’s been in for years and not had the opportunity to do anything about until now.  And I can only imagine that knowing just enough to slowly make out bits and pieces but not enough to be fluent adds its own special edge to the frustration.

That said, she’s nothing if not eager and determined.  The first several times I suggested taking a break she insisted we keep going.  Eventually I ended up calling a break for myself.  I’d already been doing this for the past week; I needed a change of pace.

For said break we wound up heading up to the spring.  Her to catch dinner for the two of us and me to do laundry slightly downstream.  When she caught me fretting on the way out the door about the possibility of getting rained on and adding another set of clothes to what I’d need to figure out how to dry, she suggested that I just wear what I wore when I joined her on the boat the other week.  Had it been anyone else I might have balked at the idea, but she talked me around to it.  There was a certain amount of sense to the idea afterall, and even getting caught in the rain isn’t all that cold.  And I’m pretty sure she has eyes for Lin too much to mean anything untoward by it.  As evidenced by her asking about the good doctor(‘s assistant) on the walk out.  One of these days we need to arrange another opportunity for those two to spend time together.

On a related note, laundry by hand in a stream is not my favorite, even if I should be used to it by now.  It was nice though to have a moment to myself that wasn’t late in the evening.  Haven’t had many of those since the teaching started.

Dinner was satisfying.  Managed not to cut my hand open this time.  Or to stare while Maiko ate the “leftovers”.  Truly a terrifyingly effective digestive system.  With all she eats and her high resting body heat it makes me wonder just how high her metabolism is compared to the average human.  Then again, maybe I just personally don’t eat much so it looks like a lot.

Had some more “teaching demonstrations” (okay, that doesn’t look right putting the quotes around it) after dinner.  Maiko was back in the position I found her in yesterday, lying on the couch, sounding out words from a book when I left her to retire to my room for the night.

I’ll be going back into the Village tomorrow.  It’ll be interesting to see what kind of progress she makes by the time I get back.

 

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