Bean is lying, curled up on a hospital bed too small for him, dying because his body has grown too large for his heart. He is thinking about, of all things, his first kiss.
Bean's first kiss was not with Petra Arkanian in Warsaw, Poland, as many would guess if anyone cared to ask. It was not the kiss of a woman who wanted to have his children and was forcing his hand, or rather his libido. It was not witnessed by an old man who disapproved and an old woman who grinned and winked.
Bean's first kiss was witnissed by no one. Bean being only nine and his partner eleven, it was not a sexual kiss; it was a kiss with no ulterior motives aside from the desperation of a boy whose future looked even more bleak than Bean's own. Bean's first kiss was with Ender Wiggin, the night before Bean returned to Earth to meet his family at last, when it was obvious-- at least to Bean --that Ender would never stand on the Earth again.
Bean is lying, curled up on a hospital bed too small for him, dying because his body has grown too large for his heart. He is thinking about, of all things, his first love.
Bean's first kiss was not with Petra Arkanian in Warsaw, Poland, as many would guess if anyone cared to ask. It was not the kiss of a woman who wanted to have his children and was forcing his hand, or rather his libido. It was not witnessed by an old man who disapproved and an old woman who grinned and winked.
Bean's first kiss was witnissed by no one. Bean being only nine and his partner eleven, it was not a sexual kiss; it was a kiss with no ulterior motives aside from the desperation of a boy whose future looked even more bleak than Bean's own. Bean's first kiss was with Ender Wiggin, the night before Bean returned to Earth to meet his family at last, when it was obvious-- at least to Bean --that Ender would never stand on the Earth again.
Bean is lying, curled up on a hospital bed too small for him, dying because his body has grown too large for his heart. He is thinking about, of all things, his first love.