Chapter 18 Chapter 16 Education in the Museum

They followed. Museums are filled with crowds of people seeking knowledge or a bathroom.Most of the audience is between the ages of two and ten, and basically every child is accompanied by an adult.Like a flock of brightly colored parrots, they roamed among the exhibits and made loud noises.There are at least three languages ​​spoken, but they all sound the same.Children's languages ​​know no boundaries. Cody and Astor, looking a little frightened by the crowd, followed me closely.This is in stark contrast to their usual adventurous spirit that is not afraid of anything, which is very satisfying.I seized this opportunity quickly and led them to the piranha display case.

"How do they look?" I asked them both. "It's ugly," Cody said softly, looking at the big teeth of the piranha without blinking. "That's the piranha," Astor said. "They can eat a whole cow." "What would you do if you saw a piranha while you were swimming?" I asked them. "Kill them," Cody said. "You can't kill them," said Astor, "you gotta run away from them." "So whenever you see these ugly fish, you either want to kill them or run away, don't you?" I said.They both nodded. "What would these fish do if they were as smart as people?"

"Makeup," Astorgog said with a smile. "By the way," I said, and even Cody laughed. "What kind of disguise do you recommend? A wig or a beard?" "Dexter," said Astor, "they're fish, and fish don't grow beards." "Oh," I said, "so they still want to look like fish?" "Of course," she said, like I was an idiot. "Like what kind of fish?" I said. "Big fish? Like a shark?" "Normal," Cody said.His sister looked at him, then nodded. "No matter what, as long as there are lots and lots of fish in that place," she said, "pretending to be normal fish won't scare away the fish they want to eat."

"Aha," I said. They both watched the fish in silence for a while.Cody understood first, and he frowned at me.I smiled encouragingly at him.He whispered something in his ear to Astor, who looked taken aback.She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. "Oh," she said. "Yeah," I said, "oh." She looked at Cody, who was watching the piranha again, and at his sister.They didn't say anything like that, but everything was silent.I let it go until they looked up at me again. "What can we learn from piranhas?" I said. "Don't look so fierce," Cody said.

"To look ordinary," said Astor reluctantly, "but fish aren't people, Dexter." "Exactly," I said, "because people can recognize what looks dangerous, so they survive. Fish get caught, which we don't want." They looked at me gravely, and then at fish. "So did we learn anything else today?" I asked after a while. "Don't get caught," said Astor. I sigh.This is the beginning, and there is still a lot of work to be done. "Come on," I said, "let's look at the other exhibits." I'm not very familiar with this museum, probably because I haven't had the opportunity to visit with children so far, so I purely improvise to find exhibits that make them think and learn proper skills.I have to admit, the piranhas were pure luck, they came into view, and my brain produced the right teaching idea.Finding the next teaching aid is not so easy.We trudged through half an hour of horribly loud, overcrowded children and their not-so-good parents to the lions.

Once again, Cody and Astor, fascinated by the veritable villain, paused in front of the exhibit.Of course it was a stuffed lion, but they still looked at it carefully.The male lion stood majestically next to the carcass of an antelope, with his mouth open and his sharp teeth gleaming coldly.It is surrounded by two lionesses and a lion cub.Next to the exhibits is a two-page text description, and I found the materials I needed in the middle of the second page. "Well," I said cheerfully, "are we glad we're not lions?" "Yes," Cody said. "Look here," I said, "when male lions take over a pride..."

"That's called taking the throne, Dexter," Astor said. "It's in The Lion King." "Well," I said, "when a new Lion King takes the throne, he kills all the cubs." "It's horrible," said Astor. I smiled at her, showing my fangs. "No, it's perfectly natural," I said, "to protect itself, and to ensure that only its own descendants will continue on the throne. Many trappers do that." "What does that have to do with us?" said Astor. "You're not going to kill us when you marry Mom, are you?"

"Of course not," I said, "you are my lion cubs now." "And then?" she said. I opened my mouth to explain to them, but suddenly felt out of breath.My mouth was open, but I couldn't speak because my brain was racing, and the idea was so farfetched that I didn't even have to think about how absurd it was.Many predators are like this, I heard my voice say - to protect itself.I just said so. Whatever it is that makes me a Predator, Nightcrawler is where my soul is.But now the Night Walker was scared away by something else.Does it mean that it is—— What is it?A new nightwalker king is threatening my nightwalkers?I've met a lot of people in my life who have shadows like mine trailing behind them, but apart from our recognition of each other and a silent growl or two, nothing out of the ordinary.This is ridiculous, there's no way the Nightcrawler has a dad.

Have it? "Dexter?" Astor said, "You're scaring us." I admit I scared myself too.The idea that Nightcrawler might be being stalked by Dad, who wants to kill him, is horrific.But speaking of which, where did the Nightcrawler come from?I'm pretty sure it wasn't a mental fragment of a psychopath.I'm not schizophrenic - I'm sure of that, as is the Nightcrawler.The fact that it has disappeared today proves that it has a separate existence of its own. That said, the Nightcrawler came from somewhere that existed before me.It has a source, you can call that its parent or whatever.

"Dexter," Astor said.Then I realized I was still standing in front of them, still with that stupid, gaping mouth, like a nerd. "Oh," I said, "I was just thinking." "It hurts, doesn't it?" she said. I shut my mouth and look at her.She was looking at me with the look on her face of a ten-year-old who thinks adults are stupid.This time I agree with her.I always regard the existence of the Nightwalker as innate, and never thought about where and how it came from.I've always been smug and foolishly content to co-exist with it, to be me and not some other hollow thing.Now, having just learned a little about self-knowledge, I've been baffled.Why do I have to pick this moment to gain new knowledge, in front of two bright-eyed children?I'll have to devote some additional time and thought to this matter, but the time and place are just right.

"Excuse me," I said, "let's go to the planetarium part." "But you haven't told us why lions matter," she said. Indeed, I can't even remember why lions mattered.Before I could admit it, my phone rang and saved my image. "Wait a minute." I said as I pulled the phone out of the holster.I looked it up and it was Deborah.After all, family matters, and I answered the call. "They've found their head," she said. I didn't understand what she was saying for a moment, but Deborah was humming impetuously in my ear, and I had to say it. "Head? The head of the body of the college homicide?" I said. Deborah hissed furiously. "My God, Dexter, there aren't many missing heads in this city." "Well, city hall," I said. "Dexter, get over here, I need you." "But, Deborah, it's Saturday and I'm..." "Now." She said and hung up. I looked at Cody and Astor, very embarrassed.On the one hand, if I take them home, it will take me at least an hour to get to Deborah's place, and I lose precious Saturday time with the kids; but on the other hand, even I know It's a little too eccentric to take kids to a murder scene. But it can also be seen as a kind of education.They need to see how carefully the police work when a body is found. This is a rare and precious opportunity.In addition, considering my dear girl's vigorous and decisive style, I decided that it is better to get into the car and rush to the scene immediately.The first investigation of their lives is about to begin. "Okay," I told them, slipping the phone back into its holster, "we're leaving now." "Where are you going?" Cody said. "Go help my sister," I said, "do you remember what we learned today?" "Yeah, but it's just a museum," Astor said. "That's not what we want to learn." "Yes, indeed," I said, "you have to trust me and listen to me, or I won't teach you." I bent down so that I could see their eyes clearly. "Not at all," I said. Astor frowned. "Dexter—" she said. "I walk the talk. It has to be done my way." She and Cody looked at each other again.After a while, he nodded, and she turned back to me. "Okay," she said, "we promise." "We'll wait," Cody said. "We get it," Astor said, "so when do we start learning cool stuff?" "When I said yes." I said, "Okay, now we'll go." She immediately changed back to the grumpy ten-year-old expression: "Where the hell are we going?" "I have to go to work," I said, "so I have to take you with me." "Look at the dead body?" she asked hopefully. I shake my head. "Just heads," I said. She looked at Cody, then shook her head and said, "Mom won't be happy." "You can wait in the car if you want," I said. "Come on," Cody said, making his longest speech of the day. So, off we go.