Aliyah understands more than others think she does. |
“I’ve never seen anything like it before, Jillian. What does it mean?” “I don’t know, I’ve never seen one either.” “It’s a big, flat rock with writing of some kind, can you read it?” “God, Greg! What does it look like to you?” “I don’t know, it’s just all squiggly lines to me. I’ve ever seen anything like it before.” “Am I the one that went off to learn as many languages as possible so I could get a job interpreting for the UN?” “That was Aliyah... she was such a nerd.” “She is probably the smartest nerd you’ll ever meet. I wish I had half her brains.” “You do.” “I have half a brain? Gee, thanks, Greg, I’ll explain to you exactly how much I really appreciated that the next time I’m angry.” “You know that’s not what I meant. So, can you read it?” “Sometimes you amaze me... you truly do.” “How?” “We’ll get into that later, right now I want to get some pictures.” “C’mere, there’s more on the other side.” “Gimme a minute... there, where’s the rest... yeah, I think Aliyah will love this. She used to come somewhere near here to get away. I wonder if she ever found anything?” “She never talked much. What a nerd!” “There, sent and she should have them in minutes. We’ll see what she has to say.” “If she bothers, she never answered any of my questions.” “She just did, she says, “Congratulations, you found it. I wondered how long it would take. I wrote it and aged it, it says, ‘Eschew Obfuscating Sesquipedalianism.’” “What..?” “It means, ‘Avoid the use of long, complex language.’” “But...” “Aliyah, you dog. You hid it until graduation.” “Hid what?” “A sense of humor, she used the ‘The Nerd’ persona as a shield against a less intelligent world. A nerd, huh?” “But...” |