The Core of the Sun Read Online Free PDF

asked me to change out of my overalls and sweater into a dress and patent-leather shoes. She took my erector set and books and wooden train set into the shed and hid them behind the firewood. I was old enough by then that she didn’t hide the seriousness of the situation. She told me to sit at the kitchen table and looked me in the eye.
    I remember every word of that conversation. “Vanna, there’s something I have to ask you to do. I want you to not tell the nice men that you know how to read and count. When they come here I want you to play house with Manna and be polite and smile and be very good and agreeable. Copy everything Manna does.”
    â€œWhy?”
    She started to laugh. The pear smell of amusement mixed with the lemon of worry. “Never, ever ask ‘why’ when they’re around. You see, those men don’t like little girls who are too smart and curious. Remember the story about the feisty shepherd girl who was really a princess under her ragged clothes?”
    â€œI remember.”
    â€œNow think the other way around. Pretend that you’re a clever shepherd girl, and you’re just dressed up in pretty clothes, and you’re trying to make everybody believe that you’re a spoiled, empty-headed little princess. So no one guesses that under your clothes you’re a brave shepherd girl who climbs trees and chases away wolves with your staff.”
    A fun, challenging game. I nodded enthusiastically.
    â€œI know you can do it, sweetheart. Even the little girl in the story must have found it very useful to know how to be a fancy princess sometimes and a clever shepherd girl at other times. She had to be the most capable shepherd of all when she was with the shepherds, and the kind of princess who demanded ten mattresses to sleep on a pea when she was in a palace.”
    The inspectors found two little flaxen-haired, pink-swathed darlings. They inspected our toy box with a single glance, watched for a little while as we played house. I was the mother and you were the child and the baby doll was the other child and the teddy bear was another and the sofa cushion was the daddy, who went to the sofa to go to work. The inspectors nodded with satisfaction and smelled as sweet as jelly. They gave Aulikki a thick stack of booklets and notebooks with instructions for early eloi education.
    When they had left, Aulikki put the notebooks and booklets aside and took a key out of her pocket. She went to the wide cabinet with the glass cupboard on top where she kept the good china. She unlocked the lower doors of the cabinet. All the books were kept there, out of sight. She gave me permission to touch the books again and read them. But all the toys I liked best had to be kept in the barn loft from then on, and I could play with them only where you couldn’t see me.
    It surprised me for a moment, but then I understood. “If Manna accidentally tells someone then everyone will know that I’m a shepherd in princess’s clothing.”
    A smile spread over my grandmother’s face and her eyes shone. “Vanna, you might be the smartest little girl in Finland. And I mean that literally.”
    Her tears smelled like a warming sauna.
    I didn’t want to keep secrets from you. I didn’t want to treat anyone wrong. But I trusted that Aulikki knew best.
    I miss you so much.
    Your sister,
    Vanna ( Vera )

MODERN DICTIONARY ENTRY
    morlock — A popular unofficial vernacular word, first entering the language in the 1940s, for what is now properly called a neuterwoman . Refers to the sub-race of females who, owing to physical limitations (infertility, etc.), are excluded from the mating market. The word has its roots in the works of H. G. Wells , an author who predicted that humanity would be evolutionarily divided into distinct sub-races, some dedicated to serving the social structure and others meant to enjoy those services. The morlocks are a disposable segment