“You said one,” Mira reminded him. 🌱
THE BOOK OF TAD
PAGE 99
ONE SLOW LAP 🫧
TurboTAD looked around the nursery. “I remember.”
“And slow.”
“I remember that part too.”
She inspected his tail as though it might try something dishonest.
They set off from the racing shelf, passing the sleeping hollows and the stone where Sora sorted food. Pondling followed until a wandering leaf distracted him. Brink pretended not to watch.
TurboTAD matched Mira’s pace. It was harder than racing. Whenever he drifted ahead, she gave him a sideways look and he eased back.
Halfway round, they passed the branch where the backward pull had frightened her. Mira slowed.
The water held them gently.
“You can go closer,” TurboTAD said.
She thought about it. “Tomorrow.”
“All right.”
They continued along the inner edge. Mira told him about the sleeping-hollow argument, and the visitor who had sneezed during Sora’s counting, and a joke Zale had told her before he left that she had only understood yesterday.
TurboTAD laughed in the wrong place. She explained it again.
At the racing shelf, she tapped the stone.
“Finished.”
He stayed beside her.
After a moment, Mira looked up. “You could do another. If you aren’t busy.”
TurboTAD turned away from the shelf at her speed.