The pitcher, wobbling in thin air, steadied suddenly. With all the affectionate assurance of fourteen, Corey smiled down at eight-year-old Vera. 'There, I shall bear its weight with my mind. Do you make it tilt, now—not too much, of course."
Vera studied the pitcher fiercely. It tilted slowly, poured the milk into her mug, then tilted back.
"There, neatly done!" Corey said.
Vera beamed up at her, then turned to glower at the pitcher. It drifted to the left and Essie said, "I have it, Vera. Thank you."
"You're welcome," Vera said, then settled herself rather proudly as her mug lilted off the table to tilt against her lips.
On the boys' side of the table, a turnip floated out of the bowl and toward one of the smaller girls. The older children shouted angrily; one plucked the offending vegetable out of the air.
"Turn back that turnip, Jabelle," Papa said sternly. "No, Robey, do not do it for her—she must undo her own misdeeds. Send it back, Jabelle."
Jabelle tucked her chin in, glancing about her in fright, then stilled long enough to stare at the turnip balanced on Robey's palm and send it back to the bowl with a thought.
"That's better," Papa said. "If you do it again, though, I shall give your portion to someone else."
The little girl shrank in on herself. The teenager across the table from her smiled down at her, and they could all hear the thought he sent into Jabelle's mind, for the little girl did not yet know how to shield very well. Never fear hunger, Jabelle: Mama and Papa will see to it there is a serving left for you when the bowl comes around.
Finny wondered why Dory had to lean over and repeat the message for Mama in a low voice. She found out three years later that Mama and Papa couldn't hear thoughts. She found out even more quickly, though, that she couldn't get away with thinking nasty things at other children or making unheard jokes about Mama and Papa—the older children were quite severe about that.
Plates filled, the girls ate with their hands in their laps. Finny wondered why the boys got to hold their forks and spoons, but the girls had to make them move by thinking at them. Little Lally forgot and picked up her fork, but Mama instantly frowned and said, "Make the fork move itself, Lally. Hands in your lap."
Wide-eyed, Lally dropped the fork and tucked her hands together. "I'm sorry, Mama—I forgot."
"Of course, dear." Mama smiled reassuringly. "See, you manage almost as well with your mind already. Beri, help her."
"I shall if she needs it." Twelve-year-old Beri smiled down at her little foster sister. "But she is doing quite well by herself."
Lally glanced up at her with a shy smile, reddening with pleasure.
Mama and Papa were allowed to hold their utensils. Finny thought this was because they were grown-ups, their privilege as mother and father, but she found out later it was because they couldn't move things with their minds.
"Dory, give the cradle a push, there's a dear," said Mama. "She seems a little restive."
The cradle began to rock again, but Dory assured Mama, "Her body may be restless, Mama, but her mind is still deep in sleep."
Dory was the eldest girl, nearly eighteen and really a young woman. She turned eighteen and disappeared a few months later; Finister still remembered the party, and the sense of loss when she realized Dory was gone. Mama explained to her, though, that Dory had grown up and moved away, for she had adult work to do in saving the people from the King and Queen. Finister wasn't sure what the King and Queen were, but she hated them for taking Dory away from her.
Not that there weren't two other girls to fill Dory's place, nor a new foundling on the doorstep to make their numbers twenty again. Rhea and Orma were really young women, too, as Jason and Donald were really young men. Nonetheless, little Finny still missed Dory, though it helped that she came back to visit now and again. There were always "alumni" coming back to visit, and always new "graduates" leaving.
When they were finished eating, three of the older children went out to the kitchen; the other teenagers made the serving bowls and dirty plates float out to them for stacking and washing. The younger children concentrated fiercely at sending their forks and knives, and those of the bigger children next to them, after the dirty plates. Then Dory came back in, a huge cake floating before her, and the other teenagers began singing in joy:
With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain, For the rain it raineth every day!
"A celebration! But what is the cause, MamaT Papa asked, but with a twinkle in his eye that said he knew very well.
"For Ben," Mama said. "She has become a woman today—a very young one, but a woman nonetheless, for she woke to the beginning of her first period this morning."
All the children cheered, and little Finny, not understanding, cheered right along with them, banging her spoon on her high-chair tray. The cheering turned into singing:
At last she has come to woman's estate, With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain! May thieves and knaves never be her fate, For the rain it raineth every day!
Bedtime was nice; Rhea gave Finny her bath and made sure she washed behind her ears, then Mama herself tucked the little girl in and told her a bedtime story. Finny looked away, though, frowning.
"What is it, Finny?" Mama asked. "Are some of the other children thinking nasty thoughts again?"
Reluctantly, Finny nodded.
"Everybody does, now and then," Mama assured her. "Even the nicest people have bad days sometimes. Just close your mind to them."
"How do I do that, Mama?"
But Mama only said, "Rhea will tell you how," then leaned down to kiss Finny*s forehead and stood up.
Finny wondered why Mama didn't tell it herself.
Rhea sat down at Finny's bedside. "Pay no attention to the angry or spiteful thoughts. Finny."
Finny frowned a moment, then shook her head. "Doesn't work."
"Of course not," Rhea said. "If I tell you not to think of an apple, what's the first thing that comes to mind?"
There it was in her mind's eye, a big, ripe, delicious apple. Finny grinned. "Apple!"
"Of course," Rhea said, smiling, "so instead of thinking about apples, think about pears."
Finny frowned, not understanding, but the ripe, golden pear was there in her mind.
"And while you're thinking about the pear," Rhea explained, "you don't think about the apple, do you?"
Finny stared in surprise, then giggled and shook her head.
"And while we've been talking about apples and pears, you haven't noticed the nasty thoughts, have you?"
Finny's eyes grew round; so did her mouth.
"That's how you block them out long enough to fall asleep," Rhea explained. 'Think about the warm and loving thoughts all around you, think about apples or pears—or sing a song in your head, something you really like, and sing it over and over until you fall asleep."
Finny gazed up at her wide-eyed, thumb in her mouth.
Rhea gently pulled her thumb out. "You're a little too old to need that anymore, dear. Think you can sleep now?"
Finny nodded.
"Good night, then." Rhea kissed her forehead, then stood up and went away.
Finny rolled over on her side and closed her eyes, thumb going back in her mouth again without really thinking about it—because she was already thinking about the rain, with a hey and a ho.
When that I was and a little tiny girl, With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain, Foolish things were all a-whirl, And the rain it raineth every day!
It didn't really rain every day, of course, but even when it did, there was plenty to do indoors, more and more as Finny grew older. The cleaning, canning, and cooking always went on, and there were chores enough in the barn and henhouse— but when chores were done, there was chess and backgammon and whist, all manner of games. The girls weren't allowed to move the pieces with their hands, of course—though the poor, silly boys had to, not being able to move things with their minds. They resented the girls for it but made up for it at games like hide and seek, where they could disappear and appear in another place. The girls showed off on their nighttime broomstick rides to get even. They all had to use their hands lor outdoor games with balls and sticks, though. Finny never understood why the girls were allowed to use their hands on some games and not on others. Perhaps it was because some involved sticks. She noticed that if they were supposed to hit the ball with a stick, they had to move that stick with their minds. If there were no sticks, though, they could hit the ball with their hands as well as their minds—in fact, they weren't allowed to use their minds alone.