The Final Experiment

Chapter Eleven

         "A, B, C..." recited Ryszard dutifully, before pausing in confusion on "J".

         "K," encouraged Dottore, pointing to the letter. "Good work, Ry."

         He patted the boy's head and handed him a graham cracker. As it turned out, with some intellectual stimulation, Ryszard was less prone to mischief. When Dottore spent his days teaching him and reading to him, then there wasn't any time left for Ryszard to get into trouble. Unfortunately, this also meant that Dottore only had a few minutes to get into his own brand of trouble–his experiments were sadly neglected.

         On the other hand, if he tried working on his experiments, then usually Ryszard found some catastrophe or other to cause. After a few almost heart attacks on Dottore's part, he decided that just spending the time with Ryszard was healthier for both of them. It was shocking just how much there was in the world for children to learn that most would take for granted: colors, animals, sounds, just...everything.

         Really, all things being considered, Ryszard's rate of learning was amazing. And the more the child knew, the more questions he had. Often he'd just point and say "This?" as his own shorthand. It was up to Dottore to provide an explanation. Not that all of them were easy, particularly when he pointed at complex pieces of equipment.

         Still...teaching Ryszard...it wasn't so bad. The little boy really was quick, and with a supply of treats for when he did well, his success was only improved. Dottore smiled.

         He'll make a nice apprentice.

—

         And so months passed, and Ryszard continued to learn. As time went on, his sentences and thoughts grew in their complexity, and so did his understanding of the world. Dottore himself learned to be a patient teacher and father, and with both of them working together, they survived the toddler years, until finally the day came that Dottore was looking for:

         "Now, don't touch anything unless I say it's safe," cautioned Dottore. "And don't drop anything, either."

         Five-year-old Ryszard stared in fascination at the laboratory around him. While he had seen it many times, never before had he been taken in for an actual lesson.

         Dottore, meanwhile, was looking for something he could do that was relatively child-safe.

         Never realized how dangerous all my experiments were–did I ever take interest in anything that wasn't poisonous or explosive?

         Maybe he wasn't so different from toddler Ryszard after all. After a few minutes of poking about in the lab for something slightly less dangerous, he selected a few ingredients for a less toxic chemical reaction and put them on the table.

         "Now, you see this, Ryszard? This is yeast," Dottore explained. "It's a very common kitchen ingredient used for making bread fluffy. Do you know how it fluffs up bread?"

         Ryszard shook his head, and Dottore began to explain the process with a smile on his face.

         "Here, pour this cup of warm water on it." Taking the cup off the burner, Dottore handed it to Ryszard, who carefully poured it into the mixture and watched as the yeast began to bubble.

         Ryszard looked almost bug-eyed as the yeast fizzed up.

         "More, Daddy! More!" he squealed.

         Dottore smiled. "All right, my little alchemy student. Don't worry–there's a lot you can learn. Just stick with me."

         From then on, Dottore and Ryszard always spent an hour or two or even more in their laboratory every day. There was so much to teach him–ingredients, how to prepare them, how to safely mix and boil them, his labeling system...naturally, they couldn't get into poisons yet, and so for the first time in decades, Dottore found himself consulting some of his old books from the Akademiya that he hadn't bothered to throw away. So long as he kept the explanations simple, most of the experiments were more than doable for him and Ryszard.

         He'll be a genius alchemist someday, smiled Dottore, as the boy carefully followed the directions and ground up the latest ingredients in a mortar and pestle. He's doing a good job. Maybe a good future Tsar, too...Ryszard, good work.