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Every kid has to learn basics skills like reading and writing at some point. Aldecaldos kids are no exception, much to their dislike. Why sit down and learn when you could run around the barren lands and practise things like shooting?
It was the same for Joanne. She sat at a table and rather tapped her pen on the white plastic surface instead of actually working on her maths exercises. Her chin rested on her left hand, the cold metal of her palm feeling refreshing, fighting the hot weather effectively. There was always the option to cover it up with some RealSkin, but she had no real reason to do so. It looked much cooler this way and gave her the nickname Silverhand, she wouldn’t let that get taken away from her.
“Makin’ progress?”, V asked and let herself down next to Joanne, looking over her shoulder.
“Yeah”, Joanne answered but there was obviously no progress made on her worksheet.
“Can always ask, if you got any trouble and want help”, V said, “Or do you still want to try on your own?”
“Do I really have to?”, Joanne muttered, still tapping away with her pen while staring at the worksheet, “Not gonna use any of this later on anyway.” V bit down on her lips, keeping the comment “you gonna need basic maths some day” to herself. Back when V was her age, getting talked down like this hadn’t helped her to get more motivation to work on exercises.
“Hmm, how about we change things up a little?”, V asked and pulled out some spare bullets she had with her. Now that awoke Joanne’s interest. She looked up from the sheet, over to the bullets and then to her mother.
“So, let’s say you have four bullets and I give you two more”, V said, pushing the bullets on the table around, “How many do you have then?” Joanne repeated V’s movements, counted the bullets in front of her and came up with the answer.
“Six.”
“Correct, and what if a thief tries to steal three bullets from you? How many do you have left then?”
“Five bullets and a dead body. One’s still stuck in the thief.” Joanne answered without missing a beat. She looked back up to her mother, waiting for a response. V blinked slowly, taking a breath. Yep, that’s my girl. Joanne had answered her question in the way V would have done, yet it wasn’t the correct answer to what’s six minus three.
“No, that would be the case in a fight”, V replied, “That’s a maths question, not a fight. So, six minus three equals?”
“Three.” While Joanne’s answer was right this time, she was still clearly bored out of her mind thinking about maths. The bullets on the table had caught her attention, but in the end it all came back to maths again.
“We could do some target practices”, V said, regaining Joanne’s attention, “That’ll show you how important numbers are.” Joanne ignored the second sentence. Target practice was right up her alley. So V put the bullets back and instead got a set of throwing knives out of her tent.
“I got ten knives here”, V said and put them down, pointing over to a corn dully, “Look, I’m throwing three knives at it. How many do we have left?” V threw the knives, all of them hitting the target.
“We had ten and you threw three. That makes… Seven?” Joanne looked over to the knives and counted them again. “Yes, seven.”
“Correct, now try it with one”, V encouraged her, handing one of the knives over to Joanne. She took it and held it just in the same way V did. She threw it towards the corn dully but it landed on the ground before it could even hit the target.
“You need more force behind it”, V said, drawing a line in the sand with her foot, “Walk a few steps back and run up to the line, then throw.” So Joanne did exactly that. Putting more force into the throw made the knife fly farther through the air. It did hit the corn dully, yet the knife didn’t stick in it.
“That’s already better”, V said, patting Joanne on her shoulder, “Well, I threw three knives and you two. How many is that?”
“Five.”
“And how many knives do we have left now?”
“Also five.”
V couldn't hide her smile. It was all about the techniques of how to tech someone something. She took the worksheet from the table and pointed towards the exercises.
“Look, those were exactly the questions asked. Ten minus three is seven. Three plus two is five. Ten minus five is five. Think you can solve the other tasks just like this on your own?”, V pointed at the tasks and let Joanne fill out the answers she had already gotten.
“Mhm”, Joanne hummed and ran over to the corn dully to retrieve the knives.
“You know your way around them”, V said and pointed at the weapons.
“Don’t be a gonk, or get a bonk” It was a fun way of saying to be careful with knives but also with any other weapon so you don’t hurt anyone by accident. The field for training was big enough but there could always be someone passing by. Yet Joanne had grown up this way, she didn’t knew it any differently. Always watch out for your friends and family.
Judy could watch the whole scenery from her tech-tent. She had just finished the fine tuning of another BD, which had been a pain to edi t. W atching her output and kid working together like this just made her day even better. As V was about to pass the tent, Judy couldn't help herself but pull her in.
“Didn’t knew you’re a magician, V”, she said with a grin on her face.
“A magician?”, V repeated, and looked down on her hands in confusion, “What magic? Am I burning and I’m not realising it?”
“Burning hot, indeed”, Judy grinned, “But you made Joanne do her maths work. Gotta be a magician for that.”
“Nah, no magic. Just a different style of teaching”, V replied with a shrug, “Sitting a kid down in front of a worksheet and let them fill out questions just doesn’t do it anymore. Gonna connect it to real life stuff.”
“Like throwing knives around just like her mother does”, Judy said, letting her hands trail over V’s collarbone. V couldn’t hide a chuckle as she placed her own hand over Judy’s.
“Didn’t she also start to edit nature meditation BD’s just like her mother does?”, V replied, placing a gentle kiss on Judy’s hand.
“Yeah, she does”, Judy said, “But I don’t have many non-smut BD’s at hand right now for her to practice with. No way I’d give her porn yet, she’s just a kid. If she wants to when she’s older, sure, but not now.”
“Got the best teacher at hand, if she wants to”, V added, pulling Judy just a little bit closer, “Whatever she wasn’t to learn from us, we gotta teach her.”
“’course, she’s our daughter after all”, Judy chuckled, “Still glad we took her under our wing.” Judy now closed her eyes, leaning her head against V’s chest.
“Me too. Still see it when I close my eyes sometimes. Joanne as an infant in the arms of her dying mother…” V let her gaze wander for a moment and pulled Judy closer. “Really wonder who she was. Wonder, how different Joanne’s life would have been, what name her mother would have given her.” These thoughts started to pester V the older Joanne got. They only lasted shortly, not longer than a few minutes.
“There’s probably a way to find some information about her ancestors, if she wants to some day”, Judy replied, looking up to V’s eyes, “You know, with her attitude sometimes, she kinda reminds me of Johnny Silverhand from the way you described him.” It was just meant as a joke, proven by Judy’s laugh. Yet V did had to think for a moment about that possibility.
“Well, Johnny always liked to fret with his dick and skills and all of that. Was the rockerboy by definition. So who knows”, V said, slightly shrugging, “All it needed was one person to end up with his child, even by accident, and they may not even know it for sure. And boom, the Silverhand bloodline keeps on living. Could be Joanne, could be you or could even be me for all I know.”
“Now that you say it this way. Could really be anyone”, Judy replied thoughtfully and chuckled, “Can’t know any of that for sure. Not that it would matter in any way. What matters is, Joanne is living a good life with us. And whatever her wishes for the future may be, we’ll make sure to support her.”
“She’s an Aldecaldo, she will always have a family to return to”, V said with a slight smile on her face. They walked out of the tent together. V’s arm was now wrapped around Judy’s shoulder, keeping her still as close as possible. Joanne was still practising her throwing techniques although she did stopped writing down maths equations in between her throws. V would check later on, if Joanne really did solve all her tasks.
A call from Misty kept V from doing so. V looked at her holo and excused herself, walking one step aside.
“Hey, long time no see”, V said and smiled, “What’s up? Everything preem?”
“Mhm”, Misty hummed, “Actually, I called because the cards got a message for you. Could be important.”
“Please tell me it’s something good”, V sighed, her eyes wandering to Judy and to Joanne. She had gone through enough in the past and if something were to happen to her family… V would make sure everything in her ability to prevent any harm from happening to them.
“I am pretty sure it’s not going to be bad”, Misty answers, “The cards told me you’ll get a visit of the past, like a friend visiting you.”
“Oookay”, V said, dragging out the word, “Did not plan on returning to NC or something similar. Thanks for telling me. I will keep my eyes open.” She couldn’t keep herself from feeling a pinch of paranoia settling in her stomach. While Misty’s cards were right more often than V liked to admit, these readings were still up to a lot of interpretation.
“It won’t be soon.” Misty added after drawing another card. “It might not happen soon, but not in the far future.”
“So let’s say in a year or two”, V concluded, rubbing the bridge of her nose slightly, “No idea why the cards want to let me know now but I take it.” Misty hadn’t had an answer to that either. She shuffled her cards again and did a new reading for V during the call but the results didn’t change.
“Guess I meet someone again in future”, V accepted her fate, “Still, thanks for the call Misty. And sorry for not reaching out to you much lately.”
“You’re busy, V. Don’t worry, it’s alright”, Misty retorted, shaking her head slightly, “Tell Judy and Joanne I said hi.”
“Will do”, V promised before exchanging further byes with Misty and ending the call.
“Can’t believe this really worked”, Judy muttered to herself. She had joined Joanne and scanned over the worksheet. All equations were solved correctly and Joanne fully concentrated on her practises now.
“Told you, you’re a magician”, Judy said once V joined them again and handed her the worksheet, “Look, it’s all correct. What you gonna do next? Get a top hat and pull a white bunny out of it?”
“Come on, that would be silly”, V laughed before lowering her voice so only Judy could hear her, “But I can make you feel like being enchanted. Do some tricks with my finger to get just another orgasm out of you.”
“Urgh, you tease”, Judy muttered just as quiet in return, “Hope you gonna put that sinful mouth of yours to use, too.”
“That was the plan”, V grinned at her, letting her hand wander down between Judy’s shoulder blades, “But now, I have to correct Joanne’s stance. If she stands like this in a real fights, she’ll lose her balance.”
“Fuckin’ tease”, Judy sighed as she watched V walk off. She would get back to that, once the night would settle over her and Joanne would be fast asleep in her own tent.