Editing Character Vignettes (section)

=='''Erin Discovers Science'''==

"Erin? Wanna play together?"

The nine-year old girl looked up. The Turner twins, Ed and Lilly. They were occasional playmates during recess. "Sure, coming!"

"...You didn't want to play this morning," Ed couldn't help but note.

"I hadn't finished the book yet."

While the Turners didn't find that answer very satisfying, they didn't push further. Alex was sick all week long, they wanted a third playmate, and Erin 
was nice most of the time, so why question it?

"All right, I'll be the princess this time," said Lilliy; "you'll be the knights who rescue me again?"

"Yeah!"

"Sure!"

And so the game went as usual.



Later that day, Erin's reading schedule came up in a talk with her father.

"You've finished 'The Hobbit' already? Why am I not surprised?"

"Fun books read fast."

Mr. Watson smiled. "That they do. Anyway, since I expected you to be done with it, I stopped by the library. Here," he handed her a large book with an ornately-illustrated cover, titled 'From the Earth to the Moon'; "I read it when I was a few years older than you, but I think you'll enjoy it."

"Thanks dad!"

"Also...It's not a storybook, but you might want to take a look at this" he showed her another hardcover, titled 'My Very First Science Book'.

She looked at it, puzzled, and took it to her room. On her bed, she looked at the first book. From the cover and title alone, it sounded fun. Hopefully it'd make for a good week-end.

But the other book...She wasn't sure what to make of it. She decided to take a peak...



"So you see, when I put the small block on this end of the ruler, it tips over and pushes up the big block! The big block is heavier of course, but because the fulcrum is so much closer to the big block, it means the small one pushes down a looong way to push the big one up even a little. It's a first-class lever!"

Mrs. Watson smiled with amusement at her daughter's rudimentary science demonstration. She had been rather enthusiastic about such things all week-end.



Come Monday, Alex joined Erin and Ed as the trio of heroic knights set to rescue princess Lilly.

"The evil witch has me imprisoned in the tower!"

"But we'll rescue you - with potential energy!" vowed Erin.

"...With what?"

"Potential energy! See, we'll get big springs, attach them to our shoes, and then jump higher and higher until we reach the top of the tower!"

"Oh. Yeah!"



This was fun enough at first. A week later, however...

"The evil witch is attacking us with spells!"

"I'm OK! I have the sword in the stone, it protects me from magic!"

"And I've figured out a theory of magic and built an anti-magic field generator!"

"You can't do that! It's magic!"

"I can too! My theory works!"

"Nu-huh! It's magic! You can't build machines against it!"

"Sure you can! Science can do anything!"

"Erin, you do this all the time! It's not fun anymore! You're ruining the magic! And you're always taking about energy and electricity and all that boring junk!"

"Science isn't boring!"

"Yes it is!"

"Is not! Is not at all!"



"Erin sweety...How would you like to go to the Turners' this after-noon?"

"Not today, mom. I've got SCIENCE to do!"

"Oh..?"

"Yeah! I've got some copper wire, an electric battery, and a compass. I'm going to redirect the North!"

"Have fun, sweety..."

As Erin went on to her lab/room, Mrs. Watson looked at her husband. "You think we're raising the next Marie Curie?"

He chuckled. "Looks like it. She's so going to the science museum for her birthday."