First Meetings Read Free Page A

II is an interesting man?”
    “He did what he thought was right,” said John Paul.
    “You’re named after him,” she said.
    “He was very brave,” said John Paul. “And he never did what bad people wanted him to do, if he thought it was important.”
    “What bad people?”
    “The Communists,” said John Paul.
    “How do you know they were bad people? Does the book say so?”
    Not in words, John Paul realized. “They were making people do things. They were trying to punish people for being Catholic.”
    “And that’s bad?”
    “God is Catholic,” said John Paul.
    The woman smiled. “Muslims think that God is a Muslim.”
    John Paul digested this. “Some people think God doesn’t exist.”
    “That’s true,” said the woman.
    “Which?” he asked.
    She chuckled. “That some people think he doesn’t exist. I don’t know, myself. I don’t have an opinion on the subject.”
    “That means you don’t believe there is a God,” said John Paul.
    “Oh, does it?”
    “St. John Paul II said so. That saying you don’t know orcare about God is the same as saying you believe he doesn’t exist, because if you had even a hope that he existed, you would care very much.”
    She laughed. “Just turning the pages, were you?”
    “I can answer all your questions,” he said.
    “Before I ask them?”
    “I wouldn’t hit him,” said John Paul, answering the question about what he would do if a friend tried to take away something of his. “Because then he wouldn’t be my friend. But I wouldn’t let him take the thing either.”
    The follow-up to this answer had been, How would you stop him? So John Paul went right on without pausing. “The way I’d stop him is, I’d say, ‘You can have it. I give it to you, it’s yours now. Because I’d rather keep you as a friend than keep that thing.’”
    “Where did you learn that?” asked the woman.
    “That’s not one of the questions,” said John Paul.
    She shook her head. “No, it’s not.”
    “I think sometimes you have to hurt people,” said John Paul, answering the next question, which had been, Is there ever a time when you have a right to hurt somebody else?
    He answered every question, including the follow-ups, without her having to ask any of them. He did it in the same order she had asked them of his brothers, and when he was done, he said, “Now the written part. I don’t know those questions cause I couldn’t see them and you didn’t say them.”
    They were easier than he thought. They were about shapes and remembering things and picking out right sentences and doing numbers, things like that. She kept looking at her watch, so he hurried.
    When it was all done, she just sat there looking at him.
    “Did I do it right?” asked John Paul.
    She nodded.
    He studied her face, the way she sat, the way her hands didn’t move, the way she looked at him. The way she was breathing. He realized that she was very excited, trying hard to stay calm. That’s why she wasn’t speaking. She didn’t want him to know.
    But he knew.
    He was what she had come here looking for.
     
    “Some people might say that this is why women can’t be used for testing,” said Col. Sillain.
    “Then those people would be mentally deficient,” said Helena Rudolf.
    “Too susceptible to a cute face,” said Sillain. “Too prone to go ‘Aw’ and give a kid the benefit of the doubt on everything.”
    “Fortunately, you don’t harbor any such suspicions,” said Helena.
    “No,” said Sillain. “That’s because I happen to know you have no heart.”
    “There we are,” said Helena. “We finally understand each other.”
    “And you say this Polish five-year-old is more than just precocious.”
    “Heaven knows, that’s the main thing our tests identify—general precociousness.”
    “There are better tests being developed. Very specific for military ability. And younger than you might think.”
    “Too bad that it’s already almost too late.”
    Col. Sillain