A reply to: A letter from Mathilda
Dear Mathilda,
I can’t believe you wrote! I’m so happy. I decided to write this letter by hand, so you can see how happy I am when you read my letters. The circles in the e’s and a’s are really big, right? That’s because I’m so happy!
I told my brother you wrote back.
“No way,” he said.
“Yes way!”
“A real live Goddess,” he said.
He was impressed.
“Hey, maybe she can do your homework!” he said. “Maybe she can do mine!”
I told him no. You’ve got rules you got to go by. But we were still both really happy. I am especially happy because if I do my tests you set, I will be a real hero.
You know how in the books the heroes always have magical helpers?
I think I found my magical helper. His name is Jasper, and when I want to know stuff, he asks me questions, and the questions he asks help me discover what I want to know.
I told him I needed to find rocks, plants, and metals. But I didn’t tell him what for. The tests have got to be secrets, right?
Jasper asked, “Where do you think you’ll find these elements?”
I said I had no idea. Well, I have some idea. I know I could go to the plant store and the rock store and the plumbing parts store and buy them, but one, I have no money. And two, that’s not the way tests work, right? So I’ve got to find them.
Jasper said, “How do you think you’ll discover where to find them?”
By exploring, I said. So we explored the park for a while, but we didn’t find anything.
Then Jasper said, “Sometimes, I read up on things in books when I need to learn more.”
He took me upstairs to the Reading Room in the community center at the park, and we found bookshelves and bookshelves of books!
“Where do I start?” I asked him.
He showed me the geology shelf, the botany shelf, and the shelf with the metal-stuff books.
I learned a lot about rocks. I wanted to learn about what you said about singing stones, so Jasper showed me the folklore shelf and I read all about singing stones.
There are these big metal-like black stones, I think they’ve made of basalt which means they came from a volcano, only they’re in a place in France where there are no volcanoes! And when they bump each other or when the wind blows through them, it sounds like ringing wind chimes! And no one knows how they got there! But I bet you do!
So, we’re not going to France. But I did also learn about some rocks that we might find in the park in Willow Springs. Jasper said he will talk to my mom and dad to see if he and I can take a field trip there.
He read a lot about plants because he loves trees. I think he wants to marry a tree!
After we finished research, Jasper asked, “Is there anything else you want to read?”
I could see he was still real into his tree love story book, so I said, “Sure!”
And I found a book about magic and wizards and witches and goddesses. And you know what? It was almost as interesting as your letter, but your letter was way better, because you really are a goddess and a witch and everything you wrote about really, truly happened.
When we put our books away, Jasper said, “Here! Look at this!” And he showed me his GPS on his phone and it had all these bright dots and when I asked Jasper what they were, he said, “These are known metal deposits!”
So, even though I haven’t found the metal or the rocks or the plants yet, I have a start!
I, Terseus, accept the tests, O Mathilda!
I am your apprentice servant.
Forever, or for life!
–Terseus
Cathy Tea's SimLit Anthology 