Thousand: Six Hundred Ninety-Six

people have come for time out of mind to learn.” “It’s like a college?” When the old woman doesn’t answer the girl sips again from her cup. If she’s ever to get to the bottom it probably won’t be today. She tries again, “It’s a school? They ask you what you want to learn and stuff?” A smile flickers across the woman’s face, as though a pleasant memory disturbed her surface. “It is no college. Not in the sense of teachers and scholars.” With a mild groan the woman pushes herself from the cushion and rises. Rubbing her knees, she