Chapter 9

She had her mom’s look—sweet and lovely. The Oxygen tube was on her face and the small Oxygen capsule in her backpack. She was sitting on my lap and watching her TV program. Her witch’s hat was right on my face. She wore all black, and add to that, she had pointy shoes as well. He was sitting beside me with an Oxygen tube on his face and carrying the Oxygen capsule in his backpack. He was wearing the knight’s helmet with the knight’s armor. His boots were a little bit big for him, but those were the only boots that were left on that dreadful day. The day we went shopping, it was like the actual medieval age and we were in the middle of a battlefield. People were pushing one another to get what they wanted. It was a dreadful day to remember. The witch and the witch-hunter were watching TV peacefully with oxygen tubes on their faces. It was peaceful sitting there with them. I put my arm around his shoulder and pressed him closer to my chest. He didn’t resist.

“I didn’t know that the stars die,” she said . “Why is it happening?”

“Do you want me to spoil the program for you?” I teased her.

“No, but I want to know,” she responded.

“Do you want the short answer or the long one?” I asked.

“The short one,” she requested.

“Nothing lasts forever,” I answered.

“And the long one?” she asked, which means she wasn’t satisfied with the answer.

“Ran out of fuel, like your capsule,” I responded and pointed out that she had to change the capsule. She laughed at my answer.

“It’s not fair,” she protested.

“I believe you are right, young lady. I shouldn’t have given both answers. It wasn’t fair for me,” I responded. She giggled.

“I meant, you should have given me the long answer, but you didn’t. You lied,” she said and gave me a frowny face.

“Well, we should argue about that since the second answer had three more words than the first one. In dictionary and mathematics, it is defined as the longer one. See, I didn’t lie,” I responded. She was holding back her smile and tried hard to keep her frowny face. I was smiling the whole time.

“Can you give me at least a little bit more explanation?” she requested.

“Run out of fuel, like your capsule, get bigger, get shrank, and then they die,” I answered with a smile on my face. Now her frown got meaner, still holding back her smile.

“Aren’t you satisfied with the answers?” I asked.

“No,” she responded quickly.

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“Well, you and miiiiiiiillions of other scientists are sharing the same feeling. They are not satisfied with anything either, and they want to know more, so they try to find the answers by themselves, which is great. Sometimes, that dissatisfaction answers and the pursuit to find them, let them find the mistakes in the answers that nobody saw or find a new or better way to explain it. What I am trying to say is, you should always find the answers that make you satisfy. The real scientist doesn’t care about who said what or how reliable the source is. They always try to find their answers,” I replied.

“Do you think that I could be a scientist someday?” she asked.

“Do you wanna know the ingredient to become a scientist?” I responded.

“Uhuum,” she responded.

“Well, the ingredients are questions, suspicious answers, trying to find the answers without being biased. If you combine them with orders, you make a good scientist. Right now, I see a witch who has a question, and she is not satisfied by the answers I gave her. Good. Is the witch going to find the answer that makes her satisfied?” I asked her.

“Uhuum,” she responded and nodded her head as well to emphasize the answer.

“Well, we have a little witch scientist. It is odd, but welcome to the community,” I responded. Her frowny face was gone. She smiled. She put her little lips on my cheek and gave me a quick kiss. After that, she lay back on my chest. Her little head was right below my chin. Now her pointy hat was on the other side of my face.

“Meleta! Valerio! You guys ready?” their mom asked from the bedroom. We all ignored her. Then she came to the hall. “You guys ready?” she asked again. Before anyone could answer, Meleta turned around and put her knees on my lap, so I had to close my two legs and make them tighter so she wouldn’t slide through my legs. She nodded her head as a positive answer, then she removed her oxygen tubes with her right hand while holding herself steady with her other hand around my neck. I put my hand around her slim and light body and held her steady from the back. I didn’t want her to fall back.

“Mommy, guess what? I am a scientist,” Meleta said it with lots of excitement. Her mom moved closer to the couch where I was sitting.

“Then why do I only see a witch with a hat? Have you compelled me?” her mom responded.

“No, no, Mommy. Agustin told me that I am a scientist. He said it himself,” she said.

“Maybe you compelled him to say that,” her mom answered with a smile.

“Should I kill the witch?” Valerio asked with a smile on his little round face.

“Then you will get half the chocolate from the neighbors. It is not economical,” I answered.

“Then I will burn her after we get our treats,” Valerio said with excitement.

“That’s the spirit of a knight. It is how it’s been done since ancient time,” I responded with a smile. His mom laughed at both of us. Valerio smiled as well.

“But, Moooooooooom! I am the reeeeal scientist,” Meleta insisted. “Agustin said that I have all the ingredients for it.”

“To make what? A potion?” Her mom was still teasing her.

“No, no! Agustin, you tell her,” she asked me.

“She is a scientist,” I responded.

“Not like that, the way you explained it to me,” Meleta requested.

“Well, it was you who claimed to be a scientist to your mom, not me. A scientist always defends her claim by herself, not let someone else do that for her. By keeping that in mind, defend yourself by telling her the whole story,” I responded. She got a little annoyed, but she did what I asked her to do. After that, she was breathing hard a little bit, so she put back on the Oxygen tube.

“Now I am convinced that you are a good scientist, and I couldn’t agree more,” her mom said while coddling her daughter’s head. Then she kissed me on top of my head as a thank you.

“Let’s change the capsules, and then we go out. We don’t want to be late. Other kids might get your treats,” she said.

I picked up Meleta with my left hand. She giggled. She liked it. She always liked it. Then I noticed her mom’s face. She was beautiful. She was my Princess Fiona, and I was her Shrek. I saw her smiling and moving her lips without making any noise to say to me, “THANK YOU.”