A Bone in His Teeth

by Kellen Graves

“You can’t read, can you?” “I can read just fine.” “It’s alright if you can’t. Doesn’t bother me.” Eridanys scoffed, adjusting the scarf wrapped around his head to hide his hair and shadow his eyes as the sun barely peeked through the thinning clouds overhead. “I can read fine, but not human languages. My last partner taught me the English alphabet, but hardly more than that. Never saw a reason to ask. Always talked down to me when I tried, anyway.” “Sorry to hear that,” Alba said. Eridanys threw him a sharp look, like Alba was on the verge of scolding him. Instead, Alba shrugged. “Readin’s hard, ‘specially if you don’t learn as a baby. My mother taught me, but just enough to get by. Takes me weeks to get through even small books. Most folk I sailed with never learned how to read, neither, and plenty were smarter than any educated man I’ve ever met.”