Vania and the Pocket Mansplainer

When Vania asks Ruth if she can borrow the Pocket Mansplainer, Ruth asks her what she needs to look up.

“Words,” Vania says. “So many words Vania not know.”

Vania is lying. Not that there aren’t so many words she doesn’t know, but what she wants… What Vania wants is to hear Jack’s voice again, the real Jack, not the feral-ghoul Jack that has replaced him.

“Alright,” Ruth tells her. “You have fun studying.”

*

Vania starts easy: “War. What war?”

Jack’s voice explains. It reads out facts and statistics. Vania learns new words (“What atrocity?” “What thermonuclear weapon?” “What hydrogen?” “What radioactive fission product fallout?”). Vania weeps quietly and sets the project aside to watch the waves with Phlox.

*

Vania comes back to it. “What nanotechnology?”

“Well, that’s a pretty complicated topic for you, little lady,” the Jack-voice says.

“Vania not interested. What nanotechnology?”

“Nanotechnology ("nanotech") is manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of precisely manipulating atoms and molecules for fabrication of macroscale products, also now referred to as molecular nanotechnology. A more generalized description of nanotechnology…”

“Why not manipulate at quantum level?”

“Some things just aren’t possible, missy.”

“Is possible. Vania see.”

“Some things just aren’t possible, missy.”

Vania opens her mouth to argue, closes it. “Vania not fight Pocket Jack.”

“That’s my girl! Now, where were we on Nanotechnology…” The voice picks back up mid-sentence, but the shine has come off of the toy. Vania is thinking about how technology, real technology, Aklo technology works and it takes her a moment to realize these thoughts are entirely her own.

She sketches her hands in the air, visualizing how space and time can fold. Jack’s voice continues to talk, but she isn’t listening. It’s comforting, like having Jack there. She remembers listening to recordings while she was alone, waiting for her tribe to return. Vania turns Jack’s voice off, suddenly aware that this isn’t a healthy coping mechanism in the long run.

*

Vania returns the device to Ruth.

“Did you find out what you wanted to know?”

Vania frowns. “Vania think what Vania want to know not in there.”