Madeleine & the Mind Read Online Free PDF Page A

then turned back to the window.
    "All right. Enough staring out the window. A scientist needs his mind exercised. I promised to read to you, didn't I?"
    Madeleine walked into her room and looked at the barren surfaces of her table and nightstand. If only… She opened the drawer beside her bed. A Gideon Bible lay inside.
    She cried out in triumph. "Hah! Bless the Gideons!"
    The Institute was more like a hotel than she realized.
    She strode back into Steven's room. He was leaning back on the bed with his arms behind his head, but his eyes caught hers as she drew near.
    She offered him a smile. "Comfy?"
    When he didn't respond, she sat at the foot of the bed and opened the Bible.
    "Now...where should we start?" His impassive face offered no elucidation. "You're a scientist, probably an atheist, or agnostic, and a humanist. I'll start with Proverbs."
    She laughed. "What a captive audience I'll have. Like preaching a sermon." She leafed through the Bible as she spoke. "Did you know, Steven, that God always knew man would doubt his existence? It mattered more for Him to have communion with someone who has intellect and free choice than it did for him to have a creation that would automatically choose him like a bunch of robots."
    Madeleine read for a while then explained what the verses meant to her. "This is a clear warning to guard against humanism. Do you know what that is? Humanism is the belief that we have the right to govern ourselves without considering anyone else's ideas or condition of life. It's the belief that man is so marvelous he should delight in the works of his hand as if they were the most important thing in the world.
    "I guess, as a scientist, you believe that. On the face of it, I suppose it sounds rather a good idea, to govern one's self. But God said that in our desire to know everything He'd created and hidden for us in the universe, we would forget He'd given us those mysteries and begin to believe that we, ourselves, are brilliant. 'And thinking themselves wise, they became fools.' You become a fool when you believe in your own wisdom more than what God has done for you."
    He had listened without moving. His eyes on her face reminded her of a little child at a favorite bedtime story. She closed her Bible.
    "You're rather precious, you know." She patted his hand. "Would you like to go somewhere and play? There must be something we could do. Little boys need to play, and you're just like a little boy."
    She got off the bed and pulled him to his feet. A small refrigerator sat nestled in the corner of his room, and she walked over to it. "Let's see. Here we go." She pulled out two bottles of chilled water. "Take a drink of water before we go outside. The heat can be oppressive."
    She handed him the bottle but didn't open it for him. He took it and broke the seal before taking a drink. Then he handed it back to her.
    She rustled in a cabinet near the refrigerator. "Do you have a small bag or something like…"
    When something bumped her head, she turned to find a small satchel hanging from his hand. "Thank you. You're such a sweet boy."
    She placed the bottles in the bag and walked to the door. "Come along. And no running off or I'll have to…to…tie you to my arm."
    He walked past her into the hall.
    Madeleine locked the door then took his hand in hers. "Is there anywhere you want to go? And if you walk toward the pool, we're marching straight back to the room."
    Once they were outside, he pulled her toward the gardens. Before they reached the first blossom, she inhaled sweet fragrances, particularly roses.
    They walked past all the flowering beds and headed to a large green shrubbery in the back.
    "I don't see anything to play with out here. Don't they have a ball somewhere? I can throw a football and catch fairly well, too."
    He walked behind the hedges, and Madeleine kept a tight hold to his hand. The hedge stretched on forever. It turned, curved then straightened several times before finally opening