Art Pact 43

"I know you're probably tired of hearing this," she said to me, "but he was a great man. Regardless of your... disagreements, I suppose..."

I snorted.

"...he still did a lot for the country. And for the town. Probably for the world, if you think about it. Imagine how the war would have ended if it hadn't been for his intervention. If the Merlia had won it wouldn't have gone-"

"Spare me the history lessons," I snapped.

She fell silent, and in lieu of any more productive action she poured us another cup of coffee each and I in turn reached into my box of biscuits and took out two to share between us. I could see she wanted to keep talking, but there was nothing more I wanted to hear. I was, as she guessed, tired of hearing the constant patriotic drumroll that the people were playing as a hagiography to my father.

When we had sipped our way down to the bottom of our cups Alice pushed her chair back from the table and looked to the outside, the first time she'd done so since coming into the shop. I was facing the window, and had seen the slow descent of the sun, from perfect orange circle mid-sky to a wavering red blob that hovered over the buildings at the long end of the avenue. It was a surprise to Alice, though, as though the star had dashed in an instant from the apex of the heavens into the horizon, throwing the previously well-lit world into sudden darkness.

"It's got so dark," she exclaimed. "That time of year, I suppose."

"He hated autumn," I said. "He was worst in winter, but he hated autumn. What do you think that means?"

She looked at me, and the left side of her mouth twitched.

"Look, it's clear you don't want to talk about this. Perhaps we should do this later."

"Thoth, make your mind up!"

Alice shook her head, the long dangling chains of her earrings rattling chaotically. She began to fiddle with her messenger bag, collecting up the papers she had spread across the cafe's table, and shutting down her laptop so that she could put it away.

"Most of the paperwork is fairly simple," she said coldly. "I can just send it to you, I'll mark where you have to sign. You can read it if you like, or if not you'll just have to trust me."

"I trust you," I said. "After all, who'd cheat the son of the great hero?"

"You think you're so superior to him. Just because you were perhaps on the right side of one ancient feud that no-one else understands. But you're not, because that's all you have."--Her eyes flashed angry--"Everything else he did was what made him great, and you can't gainsay all of that just because of some stupid childhood spat. You have to do something yourself, cut yourself out a piece of the world before you get to judge him. And me! And everyone else - Thoth, if it was just you and your dad, maybe there wouldn't be any problem. You'd just be that weird eccentric that had some odd views about a hero - but everyone would forgive you because you're his son, you're allowed to have strange ideas."

"Thanks for your permission."

"Shut up. That. That right there, that's the problem. You don't just think you're superior to him, do you? You think that because we look up to your father we're inferior to him, and that makes us inferior to you to, since you're his great superior. So you've managed to win some ridiculous pointless argument as a teenager and somehow you've parlayed that into a position as the smartest man on the planet."

"Who's to say I'm not?"

"Son of.. you certainly can't be the smartest man on the planet until you realise that there is no smartest man on the planet, any more than there's a best soldier on the planet, or a best clothes-maker. Intelligence is a diverse thing, and you can be smart in one way and stupid in another. The truth is that there are hundreds of smartest men on the planet, hundreds of smartest women on the planet, just by a conservative estimate. Everyone's cleverest at their own life, so why not say that everyone's the smartest person on the planet? Then such a thing is meaningless."

She tucked all of her things into her bag and pushed the two clasps closed.

"I'll see you soon," she said.