Lessons with Sammy

The second 25 Minutes Challenge, featuring Zoya and Kenneth. Kenneth is teaching Zoya to read, and thinks it's time to move on to the first novel in his favourite series, Sammy. This time, Sainzo has written from Kenneth's perspective, while Smuit used Zoya's perspective.

The music for the first round (Smuit's writing and Sainzo's drawing) was Echoes, the second round was scored by King Crimson's Prince Rupert Awakes.

## Sainzo's entry

He watched as she flipped the last page with bated breath. His treasure was already in his hands, behind his back, and he was looking forward to presenting it to her. She'd finally get her chance to see for herself, read for herself,
how great this really was. He had to admit that, while he knew the story by heart, his summaries could never do it justice. You just have to read it for yourself!

She read slowly, much too slowly for his liking. He knew she wasn't used to it, but come ooon, she was nearly there!

'Nanjit.. returned.. home. Nanjit is now... happy.'

Almost before she had finished the last word, he had slammed the book in front of her shut. She turned her gaze to him impassively. He couldn't fully suppress the slight, instinctive recoil that jolted through him.

'See!' he exlaimed, 'see! You can read! This is great!'

She raised an eyebrow, then nudged the little book she had been reading from.

'That was shit. Talking animals. Everyone happy. Tcha.'

His shoulders drooped. Had she really not enjoyed this? 'Course, it was a silly children's book, but it was still colourful, if simple. And shouldn't the experience of being able to read a book itself be fun?

'Yes, okay,' he agreed, 'it's really simple and silly. But this is how you learn! And as your teacher, I can tell you -' he paused dramatically '- you can now read Sammy!'

He got his hands from out behind his back and presented her with the book. He was too caught up in the moment to see her head loll in defeat.

'Come on, Zoya, it'll be great! Sammy's not at all like this kids' stuff! Well, maybe a bit. But Sammy's amazing! He finds himself into this magic world, okay, like I told you, and he has no idea what's going on. But he's clever, he's
really clever! Like that one time that fire wizard went after him and he just turned on all the sinks and flooded the bathroom so -'

'Kenny.'

Her voice was clipped.

'Yes?'

She sighed deeply, then held out her hand, rolling her eyes as she did so.

'I can't read while you're talking. And didn't you say reading it myself was better? So can you shut up?'

A giant smile broke out on his lips.

'You'll read it?! Yes! You won't regret this, I promise you won't! Oh, oh, you need to tell me how far you are! My favourite part is when -'

## Smuit's Entry

"And the.. son went ba-back to his mum and mum gave him a tr..ee..t" I read aloud. "That's great!" the mouse said, as he has a million times. Honestly, I'm not sure about this reading thing. It has its uses but it gives me a headache. Kenny over here is stupidly excited about it though. I don't get it.

"Say, Z-Zoya, uhm", Kenneth stuttered, his eyes lighting up like when helming a skiff, "So uhm, I think you've learned all you can from this book. Maybe you could move on to Sammy! Don't worry, I'll help you! Ahahaa." Sammy again. Does this kid ever shut up about his non-existent hero. Legends of real warriors doing real things can mean something. Lessons can be learned from that. Fake stories about a fake person made up by someone who's never lived the hard life, seen real horrors? I don't see what's interesting about that. But I guess I'll have to, for the mouse to finally shut up. He's been nice to me, I'll indulge him. "Okay." I replied.

The moment I said it, his old hand written book appeared from who-knows-where at speeds I did not know Kenneth was capable of. Why does this guy slack off when it matters, but show his strengths during these dumb games of his. "So, this is originally written for children, but the series grows with its audience, which I think is a great experience for you as well! Evvy and I may have made a mistake here and there but I think I have corrected those, and I'll be here most of the time reading with you anyway. I really don't mind re-reading it you see!" Yes, yes I do see, I know, Kenny. Strange, his shyness always seems to disappear the moment he mentions these books.

 I take the book from him and open it. His writing is much smaller and harder to read than the book I had. I wonder whether the size of the letters matter, but I guess I'll find out sometime. These words are longer than the others, but the mouse reads with me, helping me with the harder words. Some kid in an impossible situation doing impossible things, is what I understand of it. Kenneth smiles brightly as I wrestle through these impossible symbols. I'll indulge him.