He printed a capital A, and then Zero copied it on his sheet of paper. The paper wasn’t lined, which made it more difficult, but Zero’s A wasn’t bad, just a little big. Stanley told him he needed to write smaller, or else they’d run out of paper real quick. Zero printed it smaller.
“Actually, there are two ways to write each letter,” Stanley said, as he realized this was going to be even harder than he thought. “That’s a capital A.
But usually you’ll see a small a. You only have capitals at the beginning of a word, and only if it’s the start of a sentence, or if it’s a proper noun, like a name.”
Zero nodded as if he understand, but Stanley knew he had made very little sense.
He printed a lowercase a, and Zero copied it.
“So there are fifty-two,” said Zero.
Stanley didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Instead of twenty-six letters. There are really fifty-two.”
Stanley looked at him, surprised. “I guess that’s right. How’d you figure that out?” he asked.
Zero said nothing.
“Did you add?”
Zero said nothing.
“Did you multiply?”
“That’s just how many there are,” said Zero.
Stanley raised and lowered one shoulder. He didn’t even know how Zero knew there were twenty-six in the first place. Did he count them as he recited them?
He had Zero write a few more upper- and lowercase A’s, and then he moved on to a capital B. This was going to take a long time, he realized.
“You can teach me ten letters a day,” suggested Zero. “Five capitals and five smalls. After five days I’ll know them all. Except on the last day I’ll have to do twelve. Six capitals and six smalls.”
Again Stanley stared at him, amazed that he was able to figure all that out.
Zero must have thought he was staring for a different reason, because he said, “I’ll dig part of your hole every day. I can dig for about an hour, then you can teach me for an hour. And since I’m a faster digger anyway, our holes will get done about the same time. I won’t have to wait for you.”
“Okay,” Stanley agreed.
As Zero was printing his B’s, Stanley asked him how he figured out it would take five days. “Did you multiply? Did you divide?”
“That’s just what it is,” Zero said. “It’s good math,” said Stanley.
“I’m not stupid,” Zero said. “I know everybody thinks I am. I just don’t like answering their questions.”
Later that night, as he lay on his cot, Stanley reconsidered the deal he had made with Zero. Getting a break every day would be a relief, but he knew X-Ray wouldn’t like it. He wondered if there might be some way Zero would agree to dig part of X-Ray’s hole as well. But then again, why should he? I’m the one teaching Zero. I need the break so I’ll have the energy to teach him. I’m the one who took the blame for the sunflower seeds. I’m the one who Mr. Sir is mad at.
He closed his eyes, and images from the Warden’s cabin floated inside his head: her red fingernails, Mr. Sir writhing on the floor, her flowered makeup kit.
He opened his eyes.
He suddenly realized where he’d seen the gold tube before.
He’d seen it in his mother’s bathroom, and he’d seen it again in the Warden’s cabin. It was half of a lipstick container.
K B?
K B?