Jinny sat on top of a pillow, because she was a bit too short to sit properly at the table. She listened without a word, to her new uncle talk about her choices. For a while, she just picked at her eggs, not at all hungry but knowing that for some reason, grown-ups always wanted her to finish her plate.

“Daddy said I was going to school this year.” She said softly, taking a sip of her milk. “He said it was very important that I go and learn things and make friends.” She had just left preschool that very summer. Slade would find that she was very well prepared for kindergarten, perhaps even one grade up. She could write, she could do math, she could read. Sort of, anyway.

“I don’t like reading. It makes my eyes hurt. But I like numbers. Numbers are fun!” She drank some of her milk and continued. “So if it’s very important, I would like to go to school.”

Now for option two. “I want to learn to be strong, too. I want to make sure no one can hurt me.” There was a blankness creeping into her eyes as she spoke. “Never, ever again. I don’t know if I can make big stuff fly, but I want to learn everything.” She stared at Slade across the table. “Everything.”  Idly, she poked her fingertip with the tines of her fork. “I don’t want to hurt them.” Was it just yesterday that she had tried to stab him? “But if I have to, then I will hurt them.” Slade was right, there was a large part of Jinny’s childishness that had been erased. 

“...maybe if I had been strong too, then...” But not all of it. Slow tears started to slip down the child’s face. “I could have helped, if I was strong.” 

“Maybe things would have been different.” Or she would more likely have died right alongside her parents. Obviously though, she was convinced of the fact that her not being able to fight was the reason they were gone. Definitely a child’s reasoning.