Adventures (takes place after The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage)
"You thought everybody could read?" Amy asked.
"Because I just could."
Amy furrowed her brow. "Do you mean you don't remember learning? That you could read as long as you remember?" Ada nodded once more. "But what about the other kids in your class? Or Lucy and Fenny? Do you think they can read?"
A violent shake of the head. "No, Mom. I mean people like us."
Her eyebrows shot up. "People like us?"
"You and me and Daddy."
"Did Daddy tell you that?"
Ada's blue eyes fixed on Amy's and she said, calmly and confidently, "No. I can just tell."
Of course she knows how to read. Why is everyone surprised by that? No, she doesn't know when she "learned." She has always been reading, between Mama's hands, sitting on Daddy's lap. There have always been words and often pictures. She still likes the words and pictures together best.
At first, Ada thought she was in trouble, that she had committed an act she did not know there was a rule against. The sound of the broken mug, the spilled tea, but mostly the look on her mother's face. Not long after, there is a hushed conversation between her parents behind a closed door. This means, she has learned, that they are unhappy, although this is the first time she can remember them being unhappy with her and not each other. Sometimes, they will be mildly unhappy with each other in front of her, but if they suddenly leave to talk behind a closed door, that means they are fighting. It is the rareness of these fights in the bathroom or elsewhere that make them stick in her memory.
Later still, Mom asks her read the story at bedtime. Nervous, having never read aloud before, Ada complies. Because Mom is unhappy with her. But she cannot finish, the sense of guilt is too great.
"Ada, sweetheart, what's the matter?" her mother asks, soothing her hair in that way Ada especially enjoys.
"You're still mad at me," she wails.
"No, no, no." Then Mama - she is always Mama deep in Ada's heart - pulls her up close and tight on her lap, even though she has told her she is too big to be held like that anymore. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I should have never let you think that, even for a second. I was surprised and I dropped my tea, that was all. Neither your father or I are angry with you or disappointed in you in any way. We're disappointed in ourselves, that we didn't know you could read, that we never noticed the signs, that you felt like you couldn't tell us or read around us."
Ada doesn't know how to explain what she is feeling, that although she has come to realize that no one else in her class at school can read, she just assumed her parents would know she could read. Just like they knew she was taller than everyone else in her class, just like she knew how to tell time on an old-fashioned clock; she thought they knew because Daddy is always telling her what a little genius she is, because they always teach her new things, because she loves learning all these things.
That reading is like breathing. She remembers when she was given the puzzle of body organs and Mom explained the heart is always beating and the lungs are always breathing and it happens all the time without noticing it. Ada tried to control it, but there was no way to stop her heart from beating even though she was suddenly aware of the thump-thump in her chest. She could stop breathing, but that only made Dad angry with her and Mom got her worried face and she didn't like not breathing anyway. Just like she doesn't like not reading.
After the tears stop and she does find the courage to read aloud and Mom tucks her in, soothing her hair again and asking her to never be frightened to tell them anything, Ada starts to drift off to sleep.
Then, just on the edge of dreams, Dad comes in and kneels beside her bed. "Hey, kid," he whispers, taking her hand in his. "Your mother says you had a rough evening."
Ada nods her head against her pillow. Dad will understand.
"I'm very proud of you," Dad says.
"I don't think Mom likes it," Ada whispers.
"Your mother -" Dad licks his lips. "Your mother was surprised. Your mother loves you very, very much. More than you probably know or understand. She wanted you even before she knew who you were, and she waited for you longer than she deserved. It's hard to see you get older, because when you get older you'll move out and we won't have you around every day. And reading is a sign that you're getting older."
"Why would I move out?"
Dad smiles. "I've never understood that, either." Then he kisses her forehead and stands.
Before he can say goodnight, Ada asks, "Dad, what should my superpower be? For my comic book?"
"You can be anything you want, Ada. All you have to do is imagine it. Goodnight." He pulls his hand away and walks toward the door.
"Dad, wait!" He stops and turns. "Did you know? That I could read?"
"I knew you had it in you all long." A wink and he is gone.
The tests were easy. And they were tests, she knew it. Mom had not used that word, she'd even made a hissing noise when Dad started to say it, but Ada knew. Words and shapes and numbers. Picture questions like a computer and book were like a paintbrush and painting. Numbers in a row and what came next. She was also sent to a brightly colored room to talk to a strange woman alone. A woman who asked her several times, "How does that make you feel?" What an odd question. She felt like herself.
Then nothing new until the evening Uncle Raj picks her up from school and takes her home. As enjoyable as it is to draw with Uncle Stuart and to play with their new puppy, Otis, that cannot change the stillness Ada feels later that evening. Both Mom and Dad are quiet through dinner and after.
Finally Mom asks her, after they read together, if she would like to go to another school with older children. Ada is not sure what she thinks. She wants to learn new things. She wishes Jacob could be in her class, although Mom says that may not be so. But she is not afraid. Why would she be afraid? She would be herself. Surely Mom and Dad know that, they are always telling her to be herself, to never be afraid to be herself.
But Mom says nothing has been decided.
And the next day, her parents seem lighter, happier. Dad is not so sad anymore. Mom said they would discuss it before something was decided for sure, but Ada feels that a decision has been made, anyway.
Ada wonders what it is, but she is not afraid. She is more concerned with her comic book. Class is tomorrow and she has yet to decide on her superpower.
Mom says she would fly, so she could go visit foreign countries. "Like when we go to Denmark in May?" Ada asks. "We're flying there." It is the most interesting thing that has ever happened to Ada, and she is almost bursting with excitement to go to this magical place called Denmark.
"Yes, we are. But if I could fly as fast as Superman I could get there much faster. And not have to wait around or stand in lines at the airport. Wouldn't that be better?" Mom asks.
"But where would you put your suitcase?" Ada says. She is serious - Superman has no luggage - but it makes Mom laugh and Dad grin over breakfast, so it makes her smile, too.
Dad says he isn't sure what his superpower would be, but maybe to make those with lesser minds leave him alone.
"Sheldon!" Mom says.
"Like when I go to play at Jacob's house but Lucy won't leave us alone?" Ada says at the same time.
"Ada!" Mom shouts at her, too.
Dad does not reply because Mom called him by his name, and she knows that means he is in trouble. Not a lot, but enough. Ada looks back down at her oatmeal, but not before she sees the corners of Dad's mouth go up. They are in trouble together. That happens sometimes.
There are seven children in this new comic book class at Uncle Stuart's store. Ada is the only girl, which bothers Mom for some reason, she can tell, although it does not bother Ada. She always sits at the table by Jacob. He is not a very good artist; Ada's pictures are much better, she thinks, but she is glad he is there as he is the only one she knows.
Uncle Stuart asks each of them what superpower they have decided on. The boys say flying and being invisible and laser beams for eyes. Nothing new or unique. Stuart helps them think of names, like The Eagle and Light-Ray.
Ada's heart is hammering in her chest, knowing she will be asked soon. She is hot and nervous, which it occurs to her is what it means to be unprepared. Dad warned her about that once and the importance of avoiding it, but she did not understand. Now, though, her heart thump-thumping in her chest, she does.
Jacob says he would like to make other people be quiet with they yell. Ada tilts her head. Yes, she understands why.
As usual, Mom is sitting off to the side, pretending to read while she really watches Ada in class. Dad is looking through comic books, but he is listening, too. They will see and hear her, they will know she is unprepared. They will be disappointed in her. They will not think she is special anymore.
She can hear Uncle Stuart asking her, even as she sees Dad go to stand by Mom out of the corner of her eye. They are both clearly watching her. Her breath becomes shallow, and she thinks of her lungs, looking like those little pink wooden pieces, gasping for air.
"Ada?" Stuart asks again.
"I - I just want to be myself," she blurts out. No, that was silly. It was not imaginative. Dad said she could be anything she could imagine. Why could she not imagine something else? Why can she not think of anything better than being herself?
But Stuart smiles. "Okay. What makes you special, Ada, even if it's not a superpower?"
"I can read. I'm not afraid." The words come in a rush, again. All the little boys are looking at her strangely.
"So maybe a super librarian?" Stuart asks.
"Dad says library books have too many germs," Ada explains.
"Huh . . . okay, so maybe . . . " Stuart starts and then snaps his fingers. "Oh, I've got it, you could work at a newspaper and write book reviews as your cover. Like Clark Kent."
"Maybe," Ada says. Grandmother Fowler writes for a newspaper. Just last month, she took Ada to the big building, showing her around, the offices, the computers, and even down deep into the basement to see the big printing presses. "But at night I could use books like a flashlight to help people see things and use the books as a shield when people are afraid," Ada says.
"I think that's a great idea," Stuart says. "Do you have any ideas for a name?"
She shrugs. Who else would she be? "Just Ada."
"Okay," Stuart says, coming to lean down and write on her paper for her. "How about The Amazing Adventures of Ada?"
Ada looks over at Mom and Dad, and they are holding hands. Mom is smiling and Dad winks at her. No, she is not afraid. She is amazing.
Thank you in advance for your reviews!