Page 21 of Collin: Episodes 13-15
A small cheer went up. There was more coffee-mug raising than clapping.
Mr. Reevesworth raised his own mug in return. “I do have one small announcement. Some of you may know Dr. Hypatia Severin. She’s informed me in no uncertain terms that it’s time for us to build a hospital. So, consider this the start of the open period for ideas and concepts. Collin, here, will be the collection hub for that. Collin, if you could open a folder for the office and send everyone a link, then keep an eye on what’s coming in, I’d appreciate that. Call it the Bucephalus Project.”
Yes! I’m useful! Collin suppressed a smile and straightened his spine. “Yes, sir. I’ll do that this morning.”
After that, they broke apart into smaller groups. Ash reported to Paulsen via a video call in the corner, slinking back over to Mr. Reevesworth now and then for a question or update. Damian scrolled through messages and Mr. Reevesworth spoke to Eleanor via video call. She was at her office with her and Damian’s wider team. Damian would stay on site for the day with Mr. Reevesworth. His own assistants were on speed dial. Until that morning, Collin hadn’t even realized Damian had two lawyers who personally worked under him.
Collin and Ash broke away at eight for Chinese class. Zhou Laoshi had planned a lesson on office terminology, so they spent an hour with flash cards and drilling pronunciation and tonal inflection. By the end of the hour, Collin managed to ask Ash to give him a computer, and Ash asked him if he wanted a desktop or a laptop. They high-fived. Collin grinned at Zhou Laoshi. “My Chinese is terrible, but that felt amazing.”
She smiled back at him. “Your Chinese is awful. But you will improve. You should practice with each other outside of class.”
Collin groaned but nodded.
Ash smirked and pulled out a box. He set a bunch of large, colorful buttons on the table in front of their teacher. “Can you say today’s vocabulary into these? One word each.”
She stared at them, a line creasing between her eyes. “Excuse me?”
Ash bobbed from one foot to the other. “I want to be able to hear the right word whenever I think it in English, so I’m going to put these on my door. See, if I hold this, then it records whatever you say, and then I can play it back any time I hit it. Right now, it says ‘potty.”
Collin leaned forward. “These are for dogs.”
Ash nodded like a hyperactive bobblehead doll. “I know. I saw a video about teaching dogs to talk—you know the kind where they learn to push buttons so humans can hear what the dogs are thinking—but I thought it would work to make me learn Chinese faster. Now if you come into the dungeon and want to say one of our new words, just hit the button and repeat it in Chinese instead of English. We had games like this in preschool for ABCs. So why not Chinese?”
Zhou Laoshi blinked very, very slowly. She picked one button and held down the record button, then said the Chinese phrase for laptop over it. Then she pressed the top of the button. Her voice came back at her perfectly. She jumped. “Oh.”
Ash bounced up and down. “See?” He pulled out his label maker and quickly punched in laptop, then printed off a label for the button, and slapped it on. “Now we know what this one says.”
Zhou Laoshi shook her head, laughter lines doubling up around her eyes. “You…are…strange boy.”
Ash nodded. “Strange boy who learns Chinese. Do the rest!”
“How many buttons do you have?” Collin leaned over the box as Zhou Laoshi picked up a second button.
“Fifty-six. I figure I’ll need more, but that was a good first order. When we’ve learned a word, we can put a new word into it and a new label.” Ash waved the label machine in front of Collin.
“You really like that thing, don’t you?”
Ash grinned like a Cheshire cat. “Power!”
Collin couldn’t help himself; he dropped down on the table laughing. Ash really was a monster, but he was the kind of monster Collin wanted to hug and keep forever.
Nine o’clock came. Collin left Ash and Zhou Laoshi recording and labeling vocabulary into the buttons. He still had a silly smile on his face when he stuck his head into his master’s office. “Sir?”
Damian and Mr. Reevesworth were both watching a screen. Collin entered the room and went around the desk to join them.
It was the morning stock report. “Is it working?”
Damian nodded. “The selloff started thirty minutes ago. Bernstein and cronies are taking a hit, that’s for sure.”
Mr. Reevesworth stood and stretched his fingers. “The phones will start ringing in about fifteen minutes.”
Bruiski stuck his head into the office. “Bernstein’s au pairs have all quit. They’re in the agent’s office now getting ready to sign new employment contracts.”
Collin bit his lip.
Bruiski’s phone dinged again. “And that’s Bernstein’s personal assistant. Paulsen says they just accepted the job offer and are quitting now.”
“What about Barker’s?”
