Page 24 of Omega Chattel

He shook his head.

“If you don’t understand this, I can help.”

“I was just distracted. That’s it. I think my mind wanders or something.”

“Did you have this problem in your classes at the farm?”

“Sometimes. I guess.” He shrugged.

His entire demeanor seemed shut down.

“And this worksheet here, for general introduction to science. You didn’t complete it.”

“I didn’t finish the chapter.”

“Okay. Did I give you too much to do?”

“Maybe.” Now he looked up and his face seemed pale.

“Did you read the two stories I assigned?”

He nodded. “Well, I scanned the first one. It was boring. The second one was worse.”

“Then you didn’t really read them.”

He did not reply.

I stared at the assignments for a moment. They weren’t difficult. Everything was high school level introductory. “I’m not sure what to do here.”

Alli gripped his hands harder and seemed to shiver once. His voice came out low. “I promise I’ll work harder. What are you going to do to me now?”

“Do to you?”

“For not completing the assignments.”

I frowned. “Do you mean something like a punishment?”

The boy’s eyelids lowered as he nodded once. A glimmer sparked behind them. Were those tears? Something in my chest fluttered.

“I don’t punish anyone here.”

“But surely if someone doesn’t work out here, you don’t let them stay.”

“That’s never happened.”

“Never?” His sleek eyebrows went up.

“But I suppose there are always firsts. If someone committed a crime, or tried to harm one of the others here, then I’d have to do something. You don’t strike me as the violent type. Or a criminal. Even if you might have been thinking of taking what was in my pocket the first night we met.”

“No, sir. I’d never want to hurt another.”

“There are always different paths for different people. Not everyone is cut out to be an engineer like me. Or run a housekeeping business like Enin. Everyone’s different. All I want to see is that you are trying.”

“I’ll re-do the assignments.” His eyes began to glow as if with a renewed determination, the lashes glossy in the desk’s light as he blinked. “I’ll try harder tomorrow, I promise.”

“Good.”

“I like to read but I didn’t like these stories.” Alli pointed at the screen to the book title I’d assigned him.