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Yet Abra also looked wistfully as the children his age (he couldn't call them friends, because he spent so little ti hole, or climbed trees in the orchard, or shot at each other ooden weapons

Only his o with the others, to leave whatever job he was doing But it was too late Like a baby bird that a child has handled, so it has the scent of man on it, Abra was marked by his ith adults There was no resentment on their part They just didn't think of hi, it would have seemed to all of the their gas Especially because Abra was secretly convinced that he would be very bad at children's games When he was little, and tried to build with blocks, he would hen other children knocked down his structures But the other children couldn't seeet knocked down

Here is what Ender's coovernor, and yet he was young, the sae as Po Adults talked to Ender as if he were one of theht problems to him for solutions They laid their disputes before hi to his explanations, asking hi

I aht Abra Adults consult me about their machines the way they consult Ender about their other problems They stand and listen to my explanations They do what I tell them they should do to fix the problem He and I live the same life--we are not really children We have no friends

Well, Ender had his sister, of course, but she was a strange recluse, ould stay indoors all day, except for herwalk in su books All the adult scientists wrote things and sent them off to the other worlds, and then read the papers and books that were sent back But what she riting wasn't science at all It was history The past Why would that matter, when there was so much to do and discover in the present? Ender could not possibly be interested in such things Abra could not even iave Lo and Ao?" "No" "Then I don't care"

Abra also had siblings Po treated him well They all did But they did not play with him They played with each other

Which was fine Abra didn't want to "play" He wanted to do things that were real, things thata-down And now that Mother said he didn't have to go to school any unable to read and write, Abra spent his free tiin everywhere

Governor Wiggin noticed hi things so hi, and if other adults ere talking about serious lanced at Abra as if to ask Ender why he had this child with hinored their silent question and soon they all carried on as if Abra were not there

So when Ender left on his expedition to search for an appropriate site for the new starship to land and found another colony, no one even questioned the fact that Abra would be going with hih "This is a heavy responsibility," he said "You are not to do anything dangerous If soovernor, your first responsibility is to report it to me by satfone Your location will already be tracked and we'll send help at once Don't try to deal with it yourself until we have been notified Do you understand?"

Of course Abra understood To Father, Abra wasas backup Mother's advice was a bit less pessiue with hiue after"

"Of course, Mom"

"You say 'of course,' but you aren't good at listening, Abra, you always think you knohat people are going to say, and you have to let the"

Abra nodded "I'll listen to Ender, Mother"

She rolled her eyes--even though she yelled at the other children when they did that to her "Yes, I suppose you will Only Ender is wise enough to know more than my Abra!"

"I don't think I know everything, Moot iht they understood machinery and didn't? The rest of the time, he didn't speak at all But sincewith a broken machine, and most of the time they were mistaken,the them What else would they talk about except machinery, and Abra knew it better than they did With Ender, though, it was al, and Abra drank it all in