Free Lexicon by Max Barry Page A

said—”
    “It’s not up to Charlotte.”
    She looked back at the school. It was kind of tempting.
    “It would be a shame to never discover what you were capable of.” He shrugged. “My opinion.”
    “Oh, fine,” she said.
    •   •   •
    She returned to her room and dumped her bag. She didn’t think she’d have to wait long and she was right. The curly-haired boy came in and looked at her angrily. “I thought you left.”
    “I changed my mind.”
    “Or someone changed it for you?” He folded his arms. “They only take one of us.”
    The angel girl appeared in the doorway. Emily said, “They only take one?”
    “I never heard that,” said the angel girl.
    “On the last day, if there’s more than one candidate left, you have to persuade the others to quit. That’s how you make it.”
    “I never heard that,” said the girl, “and I say, welcome back, Emily.”
    “You’re an idiot,” said the boy.
    “You’re an asshole,” said the girl.
    The boy looked at her. “You might as well leave now. I bet you’re persuasive as hell, to people who know your parents. In student council, you’re a queen. But you’re only here because it’s supposed to be the best, and that’s what good little girls do. They do their best.”
    The girl’s cheeks flamed. “Is this supposed to make me quit?”
    “I already know how to make you quit. Have Daddy call and say he misses you.”
    The girl turned and left. Emily heard her feet slapping down the corridor. She looked at the boy.
    “This school is mine,” he said.
    •   •   •
    Early next morning, Charlotte drove her downtown. She barely spoke and Emily was still somewhat pissed so it was a quiet journey. They pulled into a parking garage and Charlotte killed the engine. Emily unbuckled but Charlotte didn’t move.
    “Eliot thinks you’re worth persisting with,” Charlotte said to the rearview mirror. “It seems pointless to me. But occasionally he sees things.”
    Emily kept her mouth shut.
    “Usually, this examination is administered by a junior staff member.” Charlotte popped open the glove box and applied big sunglasses. They made her look elegant and sexy, not like a nun at all. “But since you are so allegedly bursting with potential, I wanted to see for myself.”
    She led Emily to a nondescript street corner, where there was a grocer, a newspaper stand, and a dog tied to a NO STANDING pole. One of those things was important, Emily figured. Charlotte glanced at her watch. It was early but the sun was peeking above the buildings and seemed excited to be there. If they were going to hang around out here, Emily should lose the jacket.
    “Our purpose today is to test your lexicon,” Charlotte said. “By which I mean your array of useful words.” This did not clarify anything for Emily. “Are you ready?”
    “Sure,” she said.
    Charlotte’s sunglasses swung to the far sidewalk, which was empty. They waited. “A whore is ‘one who desires.’ The word is Proto-Indo-European. From the same root as
love
. Did you know that?”
    “No.”
    “Today, the word is used to describe any person who can be persuaded. Most obviously, by money for sex. But also more generally. One may ‘whore oneself’ by performing any kind of vaguely unpleasant act in exchange for reward.”
    Emily shifted from one foot to the other.
    “A similar term is
proselyte
. Typically used in a religious sense, to denote a person converting from one faith to another. Like a whore, a proselyte is persuaded to perform an act. The difference is that a whore does what she knows is wrong for reward, while a proselyte does what she has been persuaded to believe is right.” She glanced at Emily. “You are to remain within three feet of where you currently stand. If you move beyond that radius, you fail the examination. You are to persuade people on that side of the road to cross to this side. You may not use the same method of persuasion more than once per person