He came in and sat on the couch between his parents.
Graff began to explain to him about Battle School. That he would go up into space in order to study how to be a soldier so he could help fight against the Buggers when they came back with the next invasion. "You might lead fleets into battle someday," said Graff. "Or lead marines as they blast their way through an enemy ship."
"I can't go," said John Paul.
"Why not?" asked Graff.
"I'd miss my lessons," he said. "My mother teaches us, here in this room."
Graff didn't answer, just studied John Paul's face. It made John Paul uncomfortable.
The Fleet lady spoke up. "But you'll have teachers there. In Battle School."
John Paul did not look at her. It was Graff he had to watch. Graff was the one with all the power today.
Finally Graff spoke. "You think it would be unfair for you to be in Battle School while your family still struggles here."
John Paul had not thought of that. But now that Graff had suggested it...
"Nine of us," said John Paul. "It's very hard for my mother to teach us all at once."
"What if the Fleet can persuade the government of Poland--"
"Poland has no government," said John Paul, and then he smiled up at his father, who beamed down at him.
"The current rulers of Poland," said Graff cheerfully enough. "What if we can persuade them to lift the sanctions on your brothers and sisters."
John Paul thought about this for a moment. He tried to imagine what it would be like, if they could all go to school. Easier for Mother. That would be good.
He looked up at his father.
Father blinked. John Paul knew that face. Father was trying to keep from showing that he was disappointed. So there was something wrong.
Of course. There were sanctions on Father, too. Andrew had explained to him once that Father wasn't allowed to work at his real job, which should have been teaching at a university. Instead Father had to do a clerical job all day, sitting at a computer, and then manual labor by night, odd jobs off the books in the Catholic underground. If they would lift the sanctions on the children, why not on the parents?
"Why can'
t they change all the stupid rules?" said John Paul.
Graff looked at Capt. Rudolf, then at John Paul's parents. "Even if we could," he said to them, "should we?"
Mother rubbed John Paul's back a little. "John Paul means well, but of course we can't. Not even the sanctions against the children's schooling."
John Paul was instantly furious. What did she mean, "of course?" If they had only bothered to explain things to him then he wouldn't be making mistakes, but no, even after these people from the Fleet came to prove that John Paul wasn't just a stupid kid, they treated him like a stupid kid.
But he did not show his anger. That never got good results from Father, and it made Mother anxious so she didn't think well.
The only answer he made was to say, with wide-eyed innocence, "Why not?"
"You'll understand when you're older," said Mother.
He wanted to say, "And when will you understand anything about me? Even after you realized I could read, you still think I don't know anything."
But then, he apparently didn't know everything he needed to, or he'd see what was obvious to all these adults.
If his parents wouldn't tell him, maybe this captain would.
John Paul looked expectantly at Graff.