Read Online A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card - Free Book Online Page B

Zeck didn’t do anything in practice except fly around, and he didn’t do anything in battle except take up space. But he went to class, he did his schoolwork, he turned in his assignments.
    And everybody ignored him. They always had. But not like this.
    Before, they had ignored him in a kind of tolerant, almost grudgingly respectful way: He’s an idiot, but at least he’s consistent.
    Now they ignored him in a pointed way. They didn’t even bother teasing him or jostling him. He just didn’t exist. If he tried to speak to anybody, they turned away. Dink saw it, and it made him feel bad. But Zeck had brought it on himself. It’s one thing to be an outsider because you’re different. It’s another thing to get other people in trouble for your own selfish reasons. And that’s what Zeck had done. He didn’t care about the no-religion rule—he violated it all the time himself. He just used Dink’s Sinterklaas present to Flip as a means of making a lame point with the commandant.
    So I was childish too, thought Dink. I knew when to stop. He didn’t.
    Not my fault.
    And yet Dink couldn’t stop observing him. Just glances. Just…noticing. He had read a little bit about primate behavior, as part of the theory of group loyalties. He knew how chimps and baboons that were shut out of their troop behaved, what happened to them. Depression. Self-destruction. Before, Zeck had seemed to thrive on isolation. Now that the isolation was complete, he wasn’t thriving anymore.
    He looked drawn. He would start walking in some direction and then just stop. Then go again, but slowly. He didn’t eat much. Things weren’t going well for him.
    And if there was one thing Dink knew, it was that the counselors and teachers weren’t worth a bucket of hog snot when it came to actually helping a kid with real problems. They had their agenda—what they wanted to make each kid do. But if it was clear the kid wouldn’t do it, then they lost interest. The way they had lost interest in Dink. Even if Zeck asked for help, they wouldn’t give it. And Zeck wouldn’t ask.
    Despite knowing how futile it was, Dink tried anyway. He went to Graff and tried to explain what was happening to Zeck.
    â€œInteresting theory,” said Graff. “He’s being shunned, you think.”
    â€œI know. ”
    â€œBut not by you?”
    â€œI’ve tried to talk to him a couple of times, he shuts me out.”
    â€œSo he’s shunning you. ”
    â€œBut everybody else is shunning him.”
    â€œDink,” said Graff, “ego te absolvo.”
    â€œWhatever you might think,” said Dink, “that wasn’t Dutch.”
    â€œIt was Latin. From the Catholic confessional. I absolve you of your sin.”
    â€œI’m not Catholic.”
    â€œI’m not a priest.”
    â€œYou don’t have the power to absolve anybody from anything.”
    â€œBut it was worth a try. Go back to your barracks, Dink. Zeck is not your problem.”
    â€œWhy don’t you just send him back home?” asked Dink. “He’s never going to be anything in this army. He’s a Christian, not a soldier. Why can’t you let him go home and be a Christian?”
    Graff leaned back in his chair.
    â€œOkay, I know what you’re going to say,” said Dink.
    â€œYou do?”
    â€œThe same thing everybody always says. If I let him do it, then I have to let everybody else do it.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œIf Zeck’s noncompliance or whatever it is gets him sent home, then pretty soon you’ll have a lot more kids being noncompliant. So they can go home, too.”
    â€œWould you be one of those?” asked Graff.
    â€œI think your school is a waste of time,” said Dink. “But I believe in the war. I’m not a pacifist, I’m just anti-incompetence.”
    â€œBut you see, I wasn’t going to make that