Lev sits next to her. "But do you know WHY you go up to space when it burns up?"

Zana considers this mystery, then very seriously shakes her head.

Lev is going to try to teach Newtonian physics to a four-year-old.

He is surprisingly successful.

At one point he stops to get a balloon, a straw, and some string and demonstrate Newton's third law.

Zana appreciates this lesson a lot! She has lots of questions about everything.

Lev answers all the questions! He is patient with Zana, always asks her to phrase things in her own words to make sure she understands, encourages her to make predictions about what she thinks the explanation is going to be, and stops as soon as she seems bored.

She does, eventually, get bored, at which point she grabs her brother and announces that they are going exploring.

"OK! Don't open any closed doors or walk into any wardrobes, guys!"

"You're good with her," she says to Lev, when the kids have taken off.

"I did not realize that rocket science was such an important part of taking care of kids!"

"They surprise you! I think - being able to explain things to them is really important. Like why they should maybe not inhale literally infinite amounts of cookies. Goes over better if you can show your work."

"I don't know, I feel like if Zana can inhale literally infinite amounts of cookies she should do that for scientific purposes."

"Well see she doesn't consistently stop when she throws up, so I feel like we might have some problems with the ethics committee on that one."

"Yenta doesn't have an IRB, we don't take government money."

"Ah. Well, then I guess all we have to do is take notes on the effects."

"And then we can copublish a paper. 'Infinite Matter Can Be Generated But Only If It's Cookies And It's Inside Zana Teller's Mouth.' --You can be first author."

She giggles. "She's very talented. And she likes you, so that's convenient."

"It is. --Unfortunately, Connor is old enough to be suspicious of me, which is reasonable, but also inconvenient."

"Yeah, Connor has higher standards. He can only be won over by consistent and prolonged goodness."

"Goodness is hard, can I substitute it with consistent and prolonged social anxiety?"

"I dunno. I'm inclined to say that he doesn't grade on a curve, but he likes me, so I am also inclined not to declare you completely doomed."

"Of course he likes you, you're an amazing person."

"Well. I try."

Lev goes off to the living room to keep an eye on Zana while he does some work.

Keeping an eye on Zana and doing anything else at the same time is honestly really challenging, but Connor is focusing on his sister right now, so it's probably fine.

Time to curl up in her room and angst about everything she hasn't had the time angst about over the course of the past few days. Maybe she will unload her angst on her internet friends. Or maybe just one internet friend, so she doesn't bury her blog in sadness.

 imrainai-writes + avoidsmagnets 

Hey Z I need to unload my sadness on a friend person, are you doing things

nah i’m not doing shit

what’s up? does somebody have to die

no this is the melancholy reflecting on my own ridiculous decisions kind of sadness. Also my parents think I am being Horrifically Irresponsible but I don't think they will recognize the merit of my side if they are dead

thanks tho

I have this new job thing in a different city and my parents are concerned that the people I'm staying with are going to harvest my organs or steal my virtue or something