IXUS

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

It has been a week since I asked Toby to my French tutor. So far, he said my French is shit.

“You’ve got to guttural some words, Dirk,” he said, explaining how to pronounce some word I forgot. I have no idea how they make learning another language look so easy.Readingfor me is hard enough. The words just float off in all directions and it makes it hard for me to focus. Thus, I have to re-read them all the time.

“Dirk,” Toby said. I return back to earth and focus on him. I was daydreaming again.

“Was I staring into space again?” I ask.

“Do you? I use to think I was the only one,” Toby said and I know he’s just joking. But I know his joke has a mix of truth in it. He shakes his head. “Dirk, we’ve been over the same words over and over again for a week now.”

“I know. It’s just, I’m slow, okay?” I reply. Toby has the patience of a saint. IfRyehad been my French teacher, he might have smacked my head every time I pronounce a word wrong. Of course, I’ll just smack his head harder.

Toby presses his lips together, nods, and stands up. He walks over to his bedside table and opens a drawer. He took out a small white board and a marker with an eraser on the cap. He writes a word as he saunters back to me.

When he sat down, he shows me a word that I can’t read!

“What is that? Don’t tell me that’s how you read French words,” I say, scoffing. I look at it again and it looks more like something an Ixus would read rather than a human.

“Just read it, Dirk. If I showed this to any other human, they might be able to read it,” he says, glancing down at what he’s written. “Go ahead. Try it.”

I try and focus on the words. Each letter seems to be flying away from me. I started to feel dizzy. The first letter is an ‘A.’ I’m sure of it. The others just made my head birl even more. I stop reading and lean back on my chair.

“I can’t read it,” I mutter. Whatever he just wrote, it made my reading abilities go shit too. Whenever I’m with Toby, I feel stupid. And I’m sure that the Ixus part of him never even went out whenever he’s with me.

“It’sAlaska. The letters are just backwards but the format of each letters are still the same,” he says, erasing the board. After, he places the board on the table. “Dirk, I think you may have Dyslexia.”

“What?” I ask. Who the hell is he to tell me I have dys-whatever? And what the heck is that anyway?

“Dyslexia. It’s a reading disability. Most people with it excel on other things. Such as, physically,” he says, gesturing to me. I look down. My tan has been getting lighter. Spending so much time indoors and in the woods has been making my skin whiter and truthfully, it really is cold out here. “Halflings don’t have any disabilities. That’s why Sonja finds French easy. Of course, since she didn’t complete the cycle, she’s a little too frail and weak on some parts. But she can be hardened with proper training.”

“You’re very lucky that you don’t have it then,” I mumble, crossing my arms. Toby smirks and shakes his head.

“Yeah, I don’t. But have you taken a good look at me lately. Compare me to you and I look like a freaking twig,” he replies in an amused tone. I look at him. He doesn’t seem that thin. But he’s right. Compare to me, he does look like a twig. That made me feel a little bit better.

“You could get out more often.”

“My body built wasn’t made like yours. It was made to be indoors. I wouldn’t be of much use out there anyway. Your friend Rye is an exception of course. He’s intelligent and is very capable of living in the outside world.”