the summer i was ten

[deepest_magic]

Bella is ten. School has let out; she spends one week at the beach with Renée, celebrating, and then from there Renée drives her up to Forks, and drops her off, with many hugs. Charlie picks her up, with some hugs, although not as many; it's not his way. Bella settles in for the summer. It is, if nothing else, cooler up here.

Comments

[neverbeatme]

"Okay," she says. "Do you keep a mind palace? You seem like the kind of person who might."

[deepest_magic]

Bella shakes her head. "I just write a lot. I guess I might have sort of something like that because I'm very good at finding the place where I wrote things, but I have to actually go read it to be sure of what I put there."

[neverbeatme]

"Huh," she says. "I've been using mine for a year and I haven't forgotten anything out of it yet."

[deepest_magic]

"I'm less worried about forgetting than I am about distorting," says Bella.

[neverbeatme]

"...Yeah, that's what I mean."

[deepest_magic]

"How do you know nothing in your mind palace is distorted if you don't also write it down?"

[neverbeatme]

"How do you know that what you wrote down means the exact same thing to you now that it did when you wrote it?"

[deepest_magic]

"Some of it's just facts, and the stuff that isn't I'm very thorough about taking apart."

[neverbeatme]

"Well, okay," says Elizabeth. "Your standard for 'not distorted' is that something matches what you wrote down. My standard is that it matches what's in my mind palace. Neither one of those is literally perfect, but they're both pretty good. And they probably work best at different things. I have a whole bunch of people's faces in my mind palace," she offers as an example. "I'm sure they're not as good as photos, but it means I don't forget which name goes with which."

[deepest_magic]

"That sounds useful. I'm not all that bad with names but I'm not perfect with them either," acknowledges Bella.

[neverbeatme]

"It is useful! I keep little files on everybody I know."

[deepest_magic]

"What's in mine now?" giggles Bella.

[neverbeatme]

Elizabeth closes her eyes and reads off:

"Isabella Swan, goes by Bella. Father is Charlie Swan. Lives with mother in Arizona most of the year but comes up here for summers. Hobbies: reading, brain diary. Good at thinking. No mind palace."

[deepest_magic]

"Where did you find out the parts I didn't tell you?"

[neverbeatme]

"Just around," she says, opening her eyes. "From people I talk to and stuff."

[deepest_magic]

"Is there anybody else interesting around?"

[neverbeatme]

"Not really. There's kids I'll help with their homework and stuff, but nobody I want to keep when I grow up."

[deepest_magic]

"...Keep when you grow up?"

[neverbeatme]

"...Yeah? You know, sometimes when people are friends when they're little, they're still friends later? I don't want to do that with anybody I know in Forks."

[deepest_magic]

"People don't usually say it as keep, is all."

[neverbeatme]

"Isn't 'keeping friends' a thing people say?"

[deepest_magic]

"Ye-e-es. But only with the 'friends' part said out loud."

[neverbeatme]

She shrugs.

[deepest_magic]

Bella also shrugs. "I don't know what kind of friends I'll want most when I grow up. It will depend on what I'm doing."

[neverbeatme]

"I can tell what kind of friends I won't want most when I grow up."