A War of Gifts: An Ender Story

said Peter. “Grieving for your hero-boy as if he were dead. He’s fine. He’s not going to die, he’s in the most sterile, oversupervised school in the universe, and after he wins the war he’s going to come home amid cheers and confetti and give you a big hug.”
    “Put back the five dollars,” said Mother.
    “I will.”
    “While I’m watching.”
    That stung. “Don’t you trust me, Mother?” asked Peter. He spoke in a sarcastically aggrieved voice, to hide the fact that he really was hurt.
    “Not where Ender is concerned,” said Mother. “Or me, for that matter. The coin is Ender’s. It shouldn’t have anybody’s fingerprints on it but his.”
    “And Santa’s,” said Peter.
    “And Santa’s.”
    He dropped the coin down into the sock.
    “Now put it away.”
    “You realize you’re making it more and more tempting to set this thing on fire,” said Peter.
    “And you wonder why I don’t trust you.”
    “And you wonder why I’m hostile and untrustworthy.”
    “Doesn’t it make you just the tiniest bit uncomfortable that I have to wait until I’m sure you’re not going to be home before I can allow myself to miss my little boy?”
    3

    THE DEVIL’S QUESTIONS

    Zeck got into a hovercar with the man. There was one soldier driving; the rest of the soldiers got into a different vehicle, a larger one that looked dangerous.
    “I’m Captain Bridegan,” the soldier said.
    “I don’t care what your name is,” said Zeck.
    Captain Bridegan said nothing. Zeck said nothing.
    They got to Zeck’s house. The door was standing open. A woman was waiting inside, with papers spread out on the kitchen table, along with a pile of blocks and other paraphernalia, including a small machine. She must have noticed Zeck looking at it because she touched it and explained, “It’s a recorder. So other people can hear our session and evaluate it later.”
    Captured lightning, thought Zeck. Just another device used by Satan to snare the souls of men.
    “My name,” she said, “is Agnes O’Toole.”
    “He doesn’t care,” said Bridegan.
    Zeck extended his hand. “I’m pleased to meet you, Agnes O’Toole.” Didn’t Bridegan understand the obligation of kindness and courtesy that all men owed to all women, since women’s destiny was to go down into the valley of the shadow of death in order to bring more souls into the world to become purified so they could serve God? What tragic ignorance.
    “I’ll wait out here,” said Bridegan. “If that’s all right with Zeck, here.”
    He seemed to be waiting for an answer.
    “I don’t care what you do,” said Zeck, not bothering to look at him. He was a man of violence, as he had already proven, and so he was hopelessly impure. He had no authority in the eyes of God, and yet he had seized Zeck by the shoulders as if he had a right. Only Father had a duty to purify Zeck’s flesh; no other had a right to touch him. “His father beats him,” said Bridegan. And then he left. Agnes looked at him with raised eyebrows, but Zeck saw no need to explain. They had known about the chastisement of the impure flesh before they came-how else would Bridegan have known to take off his shirt and show the marks? Bridegan and Agnes obviously wanted to use these scars somehow. As if they thought Zeck wanted to be comforted and protected.
    From Father? From the instrument chosen by God to raise Zeck to manhood? As well might a man raise his puny hand to prevent God from working his will in the world. Agnes began the test. Whenever the questions dealt with something Zeck knew about, he answered forthrightly, as his father had commanded him. But half the questions were about things completely outside Zeck’s experience. Maybe they were about things on the vids, which Zeck had never watched in his life; maybe they were things from the nets, which Zeck only knew about because they were damnable webs made of lightning, laid before the feet of foolish souls to snare them and drag them down to hell. Agnes manipulated the blocks and then had him answer questions about them. Zeck saw at once what the purpose of the test was. So he reached over and took the blocks from her. Then he manipulated them to show each and every example drawn on two dimensions on the paper. Except one. “You can’t make this one with these blocks,” he said.
    She put the blocks away.
    The next test was entitled “Worldview Diagnostics: Fundamentalist Christian Edition.” Since she covered this