# [closed post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan has devised another activity to occupy her days. By the calendar's reckoning, the start of spring is roughly a week away. Between her and Tress, they've got the outline of a plan for the next Dark, and Susan is happy to rely on people who've got greater interest in and skill for growing things insofar as agriculture goes. But the growing season here shall be longer than usual, and Susan should like to have some idea about what that might mean for the ecosystem,

This is her flimsy excuse to pardon the latest stack of books she's currently carrying out of the library. There is a marginal off-chance that preparatory reading on soil biota could, potentially, be useful. Perhaps she might even talk someone else into reading on the subject as well, so that they might discuss it.

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes. I'm happy."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Good," says Susan, fiercely. Then she nods at the other records he'd brought with them. "What else have you got there?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He hands her two records; one is Harry Roy (The Dance Band Years), as she'd mentioned earlier, and the other is Good Together by Lake Street Dive.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Have you listened to the Harry Roy yet?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"No. I'd only seen it before once."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan blinks. "Only once?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He tilts his head slightly. "Yes."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And you remembered it?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"I always remember words."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Fascinating," Susan says, twisting to look at him straight-on. "All words? Truly?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods slowly. "Is that unusual?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Perhaps," says Susan, thoughtfully. She glances around the room and then nods at one of the books on the bedside table. "Would you be able to recite a passage from that without looking at it?"

[onthewillowsthere]

It's one of the romance novels he's been reading, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb. He nods. If he closes his eyes, he can bring the pages and their crisp type up inside of his mind.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan's scientific side is getting engaged. "If I were to choose a page from the book, would you be able to tell me what's on that page?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan opens the book at random. "Sixty-three."

[onthewillowsthere]

The crisp black print appears in front of Galahad's eyes, the way the scripture does, under the title printed in its block letters. He recites, "Kit leaned back against the damp stone of the nearest wall. The Duke of fucking Clare. It was that name, that man, and every man like him, who had led Kit to become what he had been."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"My word," Susan breathes. "That's marvelous."

[onthewillowsthere]

"It isn't usual, then."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"No, I've not seen anything like it," Susan says. "I'm well envious, though. I should like to remember things that clearly."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I can only do it with things that are written. I don't remember speech so well."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Anything written? Letters, novels, scientific articles?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes. Anything written. Not pictures."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"That sounds tremendously convenient," says Susan, thinking of the dozens of times she'd sometimes pour over a textbook to try and fully commit it to her understanding prior to an exam. Imagine if she could instead have pulled direct quotes from her memory!

[onthewillowsthere]

"I learned my catechism very quickly," Galahad says, with a flash of that occasional wryness.