Mara Morales
December 21, 2020 7:16 PM
Continuing the materials exchanges (Bertie) by Mara Morales
Mara had questioned the wisdom of actually buying the inexpensive paperback Anglo-Spanish dictionary and basic grammar guide. After she did so, she had then questioned the wisdom of actually sending it off to Bertie. How, exactly, would it come across?She guessed there was a bit of a joke in it, or light teasing, or something along those lines, but she didn’t mean anything mean by it. At first, it had seemed like something it would be hard to take the wrong way, but creative thinking exercises were easy to make a habit of, and she had, with a little effort, thought of a few….
It was weird, feeling hesitant about something. She rarely did this. Usually, with people…of course she cared what people thought of her, because while ‘no publicity is bad publicity’ was true to a point, it came with its downsides and could end up backfiring, causing losses, losing money. But that was the thing – it was business, of a sort. Clubs, teams, projects, that was business, in its way. When she and Bertie were hanging out and talking, the subject wasn’t business at all. Which made the whole thing a bit odd. They weren’t just keeping company, as it was (had been?) with Leonor, but it wasn’t business either. So what were the rules?
Finally, the matter of time had settled it for her, because she had little time on her hands. She had, between family stuff and getting products ready and laying out and stapling together her spring catalogue for school, no time for dithering, and so she stopped dithering, slapped some words on a Christmas card, sent the thing, and got on with it.
To Bertie – just in case you really did want to try some Spanish – otherwise, good paperweight I guess? Merry Christmas, Mara Morales.
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Mara Morales
Continuing the materials exchanges (Bertie)
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Bertie Jackson
December 30, 2020 4:30 AM
Continuing the career of espionage and stealth by Bertie Jackson
Bertie had almost got away with it. Breakfast was a busy affair, and there were a lot of owls swooping in and out at the moment. However, not many were for him, and the package was large enough that he couldn't just slip it into his pocket. Thus, when he slid down from the table and headed for his room, an entirely too predictable warning followed him."I hope that parcel is going under the tree."
Bertie set his jaw wondering whether to argue. The rule was actually that they didn't open their presents until Christmas. Presents went under the tree as a sort of default way of achieving this. He supposed there was some level of rule about opening things all together, because it wasn't like they were allowed to rush into the living room and start tearing off paper as soon as it was Christmas but that mostly applied to presents from each other. He wasn't fully convinced that the rules, as they stood, should prevent him from taking a present from his friend up to his room, keeping it there until Christmas, and then opening it in private. However, arguing the point would only bring it to Mom's attention, and make her think about it more than she already was. Happily, she wasn’t thinking about it very much yet, beyond the tree rule.
"Is it from Quincy?" she asked.
"Might be," he answered evasively. Mom was not the most effective spy, and he had no plans to help her out. If she hadn't taken advantage of the two seconds when it was visible to analyse the handwriting on the package, then that was her loss.
He went and set the package under the tree, took the card off (because cards were not part of the rules), and arranged some other parcels over the top of Mara's, noting exactly which candy cane on the wrapping paper of the parcel above it touched the corner, so he would know if anyone had been snooping at it.
He took the card back to his room and opened it, studying the not particularly cryptic message inside. The general shape of the package and the fact it was from Mara had allowed him to guess what category of thing he had received, and this indicated quite a lot about subcategory. It was only the exact content which remained a mystery. Hopefully something that helped demystify the book that was currently in his possession, rather than adding to his collection of materials he couldn't read but needed to.
He had already collected several book catalogues in his room because he found them to be soothing bedtime browsing, but now he turned his attention to them more seriously. He took quite some time pondering over these, and browsing his family's bookshelves for inspiration. He thought something to do with folktales might be appropriate, given their previous conversations and the upcoming concert. He hoped she wouldn’t think he was patronising her, but given that she was a year older than him and he had an actual grown-up uncle who studied this for a living, he hoped she would get that he wasn’t. After a couple of days browsing, he settled on his choices (‘for a school project’ – not technically a lie, just because they weren’t for him). There had been an updated version of the Tales of Beedle the Bard which attempted to diversify them, grounding the retellings in cultures whose magics most closely matched those described in the tales. Each tale had an introduction from the writer talking about the rituals in their cultures and how they had adapted the tale, and it had a forward by a really nice Latina professor who Bertie had actually met once, and which he would casually mention if asked. He thought that made it quite clearly a serious book. He had included the original tales as well, as it was entirely possible that Mara didn’t know them, and packaged them up and sent them off with a card of their own.
Hi Mara,
Thank you for the Spanish book. Sorry to not be any more specific than that but we're not allowed to open presents until Christmas. I am trusting that my Aladren super skills are correct with working out this much (cards are fair game).
Here is an equally mysterious package in return. One of the books comes more highly recommended than the other, but I figured they were both necessary for it to make full sense.
Merry Christmas,
Bertie.
And with that, he had just a few days to go in which to think up reasons why he was receiving Spanish study materials for Christmas. So far he had:
1). I can if I want to
2). It’s the second most widely spoken language in the world
3). Learning another language is like solving a puzzle
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Bertie Jackson
Continuing the career of espionage and stealth
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Mara Morales
January 07, 2021 5:19 PM
Continuing...giving you stuff to decipher I guess? by Mara Morales
There were rules surrounding the opening of Christmas presents in Mara’s homes, too, but these only applied to formal gifts from family and direct connections: members of the staff, godparents, family friends, and the like. If they received private presents from people who didn’t know the whole family, or at least all the people who lived in one or the other house, they were free to open those at their leisure. Mara, therefore, would not have thought twice before opening the parcel she got via owl had she not happened to open the note first and seen that it was supposed to be, for the moment, mysterious.There was, of course, no way Bertie would ever know if she didn’t follow the rules, but the tone of the note amused her enough that she decided to play along. Plus, unless her reading comprehension failed her utterly, he had sent her two books, which was enough to win him a few Humoring points.
Your super skills are in good working order, Mara wrote back quickly. I am very curious now what my mysterious parcel is, for it to have two books, thank you. Hope you’re having good times at home. Feliz navidad y próspero año nuevo. M.M.
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Mara Morales
Continuing...giving you stuff to decipher I guess?
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Bertie Jackson
January 07, 2021 8:28 PM
Returning the favour by Bertie Jackson
There was a compliment! Okay, maybe it was a little bit tongue in cheek, but it was still a compliment. On something he valued. From Mara. And if it was just a joke, that meant he’d made her laugh, right? Bertie felt himself grinning from ear to ear as he read the short letter.The Spanish also didn’t take much decoding. There were certainly context based clues, but also one of the (dis)advantages of growing up in a multicultural household was an awareness of non-magical Christmas music. He tended to regard it as a disadvantage, especially when annoying songs like that one caught in his brain, but right now he supposed it was helpful. Although he totally could have figured it out on his own.
He scribbled a short note back, with greetings in his own language. He didn’t doubt that she’d crack it pretty easily. He wondered if she would notice the significance of how he’d moved the letters in the cypher. He thought it might not be the last time he used that arrangement. He hoped not, anyway.
Hi,
Phew! Good to know.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the books.
XPCCJ NSCTDEXLD LYO L SLAAJ YPH JPLC
Bertie.
It was, perhaps, scarcely worth using an owl on (if they had had email, this would have been so much easier) but he didn’t want to stop talking to her, and he wanted to give her the puzzle, and a nudge to talk to him again in the new term, all of which it covered.
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Bertie Jackson
Returning the favour
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