Page 83 of Child's Play

The audience cheered and clapped. Belinda smiled in response, her parents beamed with pride but Veronica remained emotionless and still. It was no surprise to her that her sister had answered the question correctly.

Kenny leaned forward towards the girl.

‘Did you see my card?’

She smiled and shook her head. ‘I’m not a cheat, sir.’

‘Okay, let’s see if we can make it a bit harder this time.’

‘I don’t like this,’ Tiffany said.

‘And yet we’re still watching,’ Stacey observed.

‘Okay, what is seventy-three thousand and six divided by seventeen and multiplied by one hundred and forty-three?’

Three blinks. ‘It’s 614,109.29,’ she answered.

Kenny turned to the audience in amazement. ‘She’s right, folks.’

The audience thundered their applause.

‘You are astounding, young lady,’ he said as the applause died down.

‘Are you ready for your final question?’

She swallowed and nodded.

Stacey found herself leaning forward.

‘Okay, here goes. What is seven hundred and sixty-seven multiplied by one hundred and ten divided by eleven and multiplied by three hundred and sixteen?’

Four blinks. ‘That’s two million, four hundred and twenty-three, seven hundred and twenty… one.’

Kenny’s face had been forming into wonder right up until that last digit.

He frowned, as the audience waited expectantly.

‘Almost,’ he said, with forced cheer.

The audience waited silently.

‘You were one digit off. It’s seven hundred and twenty, not seven hundred and twenty-one, but that’s still pretty close,’ he said, as the crowd began to clap without enthusiasm.

‘Blimey, that was tense,’ Tiff said, as the footage continued to play. ‘I mean, one mistake and the crowd are—’

‘Because anyone can get the sums wrong sometimes,’ Stacey observed. ‘What they want to see is someone who never gets it wrong. They now know she’s fallible. Forget the two impossibly difficult questions she just got right that no adult in the audience could have answered. She got it wrong and it doesn’t matter by how much.’

‘But she’s just…’

‘Tiff, do me a favour. Replay it and turn off the sound,’ Stacey said. ‘Just that last question.’

It was easier to spot micro expressions without the distraction of sound.

Camera on Kenny asking the question.

‘I missed one,’ Stacey said as she counted five blinks. More blinks than the other two questions.

‘One what?’