First meetings in the Enderverse

what he’s reading.”
    “He just turns the pages. It’s a game. He’s imitating the way he sees the older children read.”
    “He’s reading,” said the woman.
    “Oh, you’re here for a few hours and you know more about my children than I do, even though I teach them for hours every day?”
    The woman did not argue. “What is his name?”
    Mother didn’t want to answer.
    “John Paul,” said John Paul. Mother glared at him. So did Andrew.
    “I want to take the test,” he said.
    “You’re too young,” said Andrew, in Polish.
    “I turn six in three weeks,” said John Paul. He spoke in Common. He wanted the woman to understand him.
    The woman nodded. “I’m allowed to test him early,” she said.
    “Allowed, but not required,” said Father, coming into the room. “What’s he doing in here?”
    “He said he was going into the other room to read,” said Mother. “I thought he meant the other bedroom.”
    “I’m in the kitchen,” said John Paul.
    “He didn’t disturb anything,” said the woman.
    “Too bad,” said Father.
    “I’d like to test him,” the woman said.
    “No,” said Father.
    “Somebody will just have to come back in three weeks and do it then,” she said. “And disrupt your day one more time. Why not have done with it today?”
    “He’s already heard the answers,” said Mother. “If he was sitting here listening.”
    “The test isn’t like that,” said the woman. “It’s all right that he heard.”
    John Paul could see already that Father and Mother were both going to give in, so he didn’t bother saying anything to try to influence them. He didn’t want to use his ability to say the right words too often, or somebody would catch on, and it would stop working.
    It took a few more minutes of conversation, but then John Paul was sitting on the couch beside the woman.
    “I really was reading,” said John Paul.
    “I know,” said the woman.
    “How?” asked John Paul.
    “Because you were turning the pages in a regular rhythm,” she said. “You read very fast, don’t you?”
    John Paul nodded. “When it’s interesting.”
    “And St. John Paul 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 or care 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,