Gravity Rises (S3)

LC: Part Two

Fidds ditched school the next day, like Lilith suggested. He'd never heard an adult sanction his skipping school, that was for sure.

As he walked down the dirt roads (being sure to avoid anywhere his ma might find him), he thought about his and Lilith's conversation the day before. It was practically all he'd been thinking about since. She'd asked him to consider what she'd said — about the mind being powerful — but he hadn't gotten very far. He couldn't think of one blessed thing you could do with your mind. Now, your body — you could do plenty with your body. You could build things, you could repair things, you could plant crops, you could run and run and run under the summer sun. But your mind?

All Fidds' mind was good for was thinking up things to build. Then he'd build them out of whatever materials he could find — an eraser, some pencils, a chalk tablet — only to get yelled at for not paying attention. Or he'd get called stupid by his teacher because he couldn't answer a math question on the spot. He knew the answer just fine! He just got so flustered when called on that he forgot it. He was terrible in school.

So the fact that Lilith agreed with him about school's uselessness excited him in a way he couldn't describe.

Should he go back to her shack? It was a question he'd been asking himself all the night before. He didn't think he wanted anything to do with the so-called "powers of the mind," but. . . maybe they'd help him in school. Maybe they'd stop the teachers from paddling him. Lilith had certainly seemed to think they'd keep him safe from bullies.

Without thinking about it, Fidds' feet turned him toward Lilith's shack. He walked idly along, not even realizing where he was until he crested the little hill that stood above the dwelling. Then he stopped, looking around the little valley of the not-witch. Here again?

"Young Fiddleford!"

Fidds jumped. There was Lilith, standing outside her shack, leaning on her cane. How did she appear out of nowhere like that? He hadn't seen her before!

Well, he couldn't very well walk away now that she had noticed him. He carefully picked his way down the hill toward her. He dreaded this. . . but was excited at the same time. His body had carried him here with no consult to his mind, and now it carried him down the hill despite his worries. He was drawn to this Lilith Crypt, sure as the autumn sun that beat down on his shoulders.

"You skipped school," she said approvingly. "And now you's back to know more about the powers of the mind?"

A buzz of nervousness tore through Fidds' stomach. "Well, ma'am," he said slowly, "I ain't never been told to skip school before."

"Feels nice, don't it?" She leaned even more heavily on her cane. "The sun on your shoulders, the breeze in your hair — school ain't neva gave ya that."

Fidds found himself nodding along. She was right. School seemed to steal all that was worth living for and convert it into drudgery.

"Well, anyways," Lilith said. "Come, boy, come sit with me. Let's sit on my porch and talk awhile, hmm?"

She hobbled over to a chair that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and settled into it with a relieved moan. Her "porch" was nothing more than a cloth draped over two wooden poles that jutted from the side of her shack. When she sat down, though — it appeared to be the porch of a royal palace.

There was only one chair, so Fidds sat on the ground.

"Did you do as I suggested?" Lilith asked once they were both situated. "Didja pay attention to your dreams?"

Fidds hesitated. "Uh, well," he hedged, "I don't remember my dreams none."

A gleam danced in Lilith's eye. "But you did last night."