Soldier at the Door(39)

And Mahrree wondered if they had asked a teenage girl to write the notice because she’d never seen so many exclamation points used before!!!

But nearly everyone else seemed to believe that full school was the way to go. It was as if parents were so willing to see the Administrators succeed and reverse the oppression of the kings that they were also willing to embrace every new idea they proposed, with no question or discussion. Few parents came to Mahrree wanting her opinion. The ones who did wanted assurance from her that this new educational program was only temporary. But she and Perrin knew no more about it than anyone else.

Mahrree wondered about such unquestioning unity of the new ideas. No one, as far as she knew, had debated the testing or full school. If something is a good idea, debating its merits and drawbacks would only reveal its integrity. But if debate is avoided or even discouraged, as was the case with Full School—the Administrators told all villagers they didn’t need to ‘waste their time’ discussing their decision but only accept it, for now—might it be that even the Administrators were unsure of its conclusion?

Or might it be that the conclusion drawn by the parents would be not so favorable?

Even Perrin had been surprised with the swiftness which Full School and testing had come to Edge. The last he had heard was that it was at least five years away. He confided to Mahrree that he couldn’t imagine the Administrators loosening their hold in education once they held it all. If all the parents agreed to letting the Administrators ‘help’ in the decisions, the Administrators could eventually have more influence over the rising generation than their parents.

It was an excellent tactic for establishing loyalty to the growing government. Win over the children when they’re most teachable. Mahrree noted with satisfaction that Perrin was disturbed by this strategy, rather than impressed with it.

“There they are!” Poe’s call brought Mahrree out of her thoughts. He brightened up as he saw two of his friends making their way down the road. One of them had a silky shirt like his, in purple. He looked like a violet looking for trouble.

“You’re going to just sit properly on the fence, right?” Mahrree reminded him. “Come back tomorrow, Poe, and tell me more of what’s going on in our edge of the world.”

He smiled. “I will Miss Mahrree. You’re good to talk to.” He patted sleeping Peto on the head and took another proffered weed from Jaytsy before hopping over the fence.

Later that evening at dinner time, Mahrree looked out the window to see Perrin walking down the road with Qualipoe and his friends. They each had a long stick and were practicing parrying and thrusting as they made their way.

In front of the house Perrin stopped to give them additional pointers. The boys saluted sloppily and ran home. Mahrree smiled to think they found something they could do without getting dirty.

Perrin came in the house and immediately swept up his little girl. “Did you see those boys’ shirts?” he asked as he kissed Jaytsy on the cheek. “I haven’t seen something that fancy since I left Idumea. Poor boys looked miserable.”

“But handsome,” Mahrree countered.

Perrin huffed. “What little boy wants to be handsome?”

“That’s not the worst of it,” and she told him about Catapult Day.

Perrin was crestfallen. “I was going to bring Private Zenos this year. I told him all about it when we were mapping some of the forest edge. He’s a bit of a food thrower himself, from what I’ve seen in the mess hall. What are they going to do with all that rotten vegetation? It was kind of fun to see what would grow in that field the next year.”

“You’re missing the important parts—these children can’t experiment because it takes time and isn’t going to be tested on anyway, and someone might get hurt!”

Perrin stopped and considered that. “I thought getting hurt was part of being a child. At least, part of being a boy.”

Mahrree paused. “Getting hurt intentionally is not part of it,” and noticed that the look his face suggested otherwise.

The next afternoon she was ready when Qualipoe bounded by again. He grinned as he saw her and readily sat on the porch stairs.

After wiping them clean first, of course.

“Tell me the news, Poe,” Mahrree greeted him.

“Nothing too exciting,” Poe reported. “We’re getting ready for tests from Idumea and it’s really dumb.”

“What kind of tests?”

“Tests to see if Full School is succeeding.”

“I guess that sounds important,” Mahrree nodded. “But you’ve only been doing it for a full season now.”