Visiting Cotton

"That's an officer letter to start it. It's bigger'n the others. So it's a name. Pointy... vuh, for vine. Then like a stick poking out an eye. Eye, only sounds i, like ink. Um. Curly, like a cup handle, so kuh. 'Cept it's called 'see'. Don't know the next one. Then another curly one, like an eel. But it can make two sounds, ee or e, and I dunno which one's right. Next one's the shepherd's crook. Ruh. Dunno the last letter."

He paused. "Right, so vuh, ih, kuh, e, ruh... Is it Vickery?" He looked up, still frowning a little.

"Yes it is! Well done. That one there," she said leaning over to point "is a Kay, for kuh. It's kind of like a See, except it only says kuh, always. And that last one is a Why, and it says yuh like in young or you or yesterday, but it also can say eee, especially at the ends of words like in Vickery, or happy, or jolly, or pastry. Kay, and Why."

"Kay, and why. Yuh for... for yellow? And if Kay and See can both say kuh, can you tell me some kay words? Or I might get it wrong."

"Yes, Y is for yellow, and for yes, and... lots of things. It can also say Eye, like... like in the word why, or fry, or cry. With with Kay and See, those are easy to mix up, and a lot of times you just have to guess or know from reading a lot which one is right. Here's some Kay words," she said, writing them down and reading them aloud: "kick, bark, king, pack, kit, and kite. Those last two are almost the same, but the extra E makes the i say eye instead of ih. And see, some of the K's are combined with a C, like they were in Vickery. They go together sometimes, C and K. I don't really know why, but they do."

"Kay for kite. And what about some C words, where it says kuh, the same? I mean, I don't want to end up writing cat with a C if it's supposed to be a K. Or the other way around."

"Hmm, all right." She had to think for a moment before putting pencil to the slate.

There's cup, cut, cot, clean, clam, crew," she read, pointing at each word as she said it. "That letter there is a You and it says uh or oooo. Cup, cut. If we added an E it would say cute. Anyway, I think if See comes before an Ay (like in cat), an Oh (like in cot) or a You (like in cut), then the See will say kuh. Or if it comes in front of another sound... some other sounds. But when a See's in front of Eeee or Eye, that's when it's going to say sss."

She erased the words and wrote on the slate again.

"See here, you can write race and the C will say sss because there's an e after it. That helper e also makes the A say Ay. Raayyss. But if I wanted a kuh sound, I would have to use a K. So then I get rake."



"And then again, I can write cattle with a C - A, because that will say ca. The C will say kuh. But if I want kettle, that has an e in it like egg, keh-tul, and I can't use a C because then it would have to make a sss sound with that E there, so I have to use a K. Kay-Eee-Tea-Tea-Ell-Eee."

Maggie shoved her fingers into her hair. "Is this making sense to you? I don't even know any more if it's making sense to me."

Cotton nodded. "Makes sense. You'm good at explainin' things, you know, lass."

"I don't know if my mind is working anymore, now that I've got myself all confused. Maybe we should try some different words. What would you like to learn?"

Cotton shrugged, or would have, but the motion pulled at his back and he winced. "Mebbe I'll learn not to do that, one o' these days," he said. He thought for a moment. "I'm sure there's stuff that I ought to learn, but I can't think of anythin' right now. I've got so much to think about and remember as it is."

"Well I should do my sewing while you practice - or I can teach you to knit! That'll keep you busy for a while."

"Rather practise me writin', please," he said. Learn to knit, indeed!

"Well here's the slate and pencil."

"Thanks." He took them, smiling a little.

A few minutes later, he turned the slate round so Maggie could see.

Maggie grinned and shook her head in admiration. "Gabriel Cotton. That's just beautiful. Maybe Captain Vickery's christian name should be on there too. Is it... John? Or I'll show you how to write captain. When are you going to show him? He'll be well impressed!"

"Yes, his Christian name's John... but I can't call him that, him bein' an officer an' all. If you could show me how to write 'Captain'....

She leaned over and took her lead pencil to the paper, writing the word captain neatly under the list of names and words she had already recorded there.

"I think the P there is the only letter there that you haven't learned. Or have you? I don't think you have. That's a Pea for puh, like pig, pot, pork, Palmer, Ponting."

"So, Pea for pig. And makes a puh sound. I see."

He wiped Vickery's name from the slate and carefully copied the new word Maggie had written, before writing Vickery's name again.

"Like that?" he asked, showing her.

"Exactly like that! Well done! And do you remember how to write rifleman? Or haven't we learned Eff?"

"You showed me. Well, you showed me rifle, but didn't tell me all the letters. When you was showin' me R, it was. Ruh for rifle, you said, an' wrote it. But I don't know Eff, yet."

"All right, well, here's rifleman," she said, writing the word, "And that's the Eff there. See, it's curly at the end like the petals of a flower," she said, drawing a picture. "Hmm, strange looking flower though. And the officer one looks like an officer Eee but without the bottom stripe. It says fff, like in flower, or feather, or fat. An Eff is kind of like a Vee, only the Vee uses your voice and the Eff doesn't. Vvvickery, Fffickery. Five, fife."

"So... so... Can I write summat?" He took the slate and looked at the new word. "Ruh, ih, fuh, luh, eh, muh, a, nuh.... Rifleman. I want to see if I can write me rank an' name..."

He turned the slate around a few moments later. "That's s'posed to be me," he said, indicating the stick figure in the corner. "Don't look much like me, though."

Maggie laughed. And laughed and laughed.

"Be funnier if I'd wrote 'Rifleman Maggie Evans'" he said, grumbling a bit, but good-naturedly. "Don't see what's so funny, like." Though hearing Maggie laughing like that was nice, after the emotions she'd been showing recently.

"Oh, do! Write Rifleman Maggie Evans and draw me!" she cried.