They followed.
The museum was crowded with groups of curious citizens in search of knowledge—or a bathroom, apparently.
Most of them were between the ages of two and ten, and there seemed to be about one adult for every seven children. They moved like a great colorful flock of parrots, swooping back and forth through the exhibits with a loud cawing sound that, in spite of the fact that it was in at least three languages, all sounded the same. The international language of children.
Cody and Astor seemed slightly intimidated by the crowd and stayed close to me. It was a pleasant contrast to the spirit of Dexter-less adventure that seemed to rule them the rest of the time, and I tried to take advantage of it by steering them immediately to the piranha exhibit.
“What do they look like?” I asked them.
“Very bad,” Cody said softly, staring unblinking at the many teeth the fish displayed.
“Those are piranha,” Astor said. “They can eat a whole cow.”
“If you were swimming and you saw piranha, what would you do?” I asked them.
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JEFF LINDSAY
“Kill them,” said Cody.
“There’s too many,” Astor said. “You should run away from them, and not go anywhere near.”
“So anytime you see these wicked-looking fish you will either try to kill them or run away from them?” I said. They both nodded.
“If the fish were really smart, like people, what would they do?”
“Wear a disguise,” Astor giggled.
“That’s right,” I said, and even Cody smiled. “What kind of dis -
guise would you recommend? A wig and a beard?”
“Dex-ter,” Astor said. “They’re fish. Fish don’t wear beards.”
“Oh,” I said. “So they would still want to look like fish?”
“Of course,” she said, as if I was too stupid to understand big words.
“What kind of fish?” I said. “Great big ones? Like sharks?”
“Normal,” Cody said. His sister looked at him for a moment, and then nodded.
“Whatever there’s lots of in the area,” she said. “Something that won’t scare away what they want to eat.”
“Uh-huh,” I said.
They both looked at the fish in silence for a moment. It was Cody who first got it. He frowned and looked at me. I smiled encouragingly. He whispered something to Astor, who looked startled. She opened her mouth to say something, and then stopped.
“Oh,” she said.
“Yes,” I said. “Oh.”
She looked at Cody, who looked up again from the piranha.
Again, they didn’t say anything aloud, but there was an entire conversation. I let it run its course, until they looked up at me. “What can we learn from piranha?” I said.
“Don’t look ferocious,” Cody said.