Oh, is the monitor boy too busy to help his brother? Is he too smart? Got to go kill some buggers, astronaut? No, no, I don’t want your help. There was something in Peter’s eyes, when he was in his mad mood, and whenever Ender saw that look, that glint, he knew that the one thing Peter would not do was leave him alone. And when he wants to play buggers and astronauts, maybe I won’t have to play, maybe I can just go read a book.īut Ender knew, even as he thought it, that Peter wouldn’t leave him alone. He won’t hate me, he’ll just leave me alone. Not enemies, not friends, but brothers – able to live in the same house. He’ll forgive me that I had my monitor a whole year longer than he had his. That I’ll just be a normal kid now, like him. I’ll come home and show him that the monitor’s gone, and he’ll see that I didn’t make it, either. I won’t feel it tingling and taking up the heat when I shower.Īnd Peter won’t hate me anymore. I’ll roll over on my back in bed and it won’t be pressing there. Ender tried to imagine the little device missing from the back of his neck.

The doctor will be in to see you in a moment.’ ‘So if you’ll just come over here, Andrew, just sit right up here on the examining table. Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth. But since adults always said it when it was going to hurt, he could count on that statement as an accurate prediction of the future. It was a lie, of course, that it wouldn’t hurt a bit. We’re going to take it right out, and it won’t hurt a bit.’Įnder nodded.

The monitor lady smiled very nicely and tousled his hair and said, ‘Andrew, I suppose by now you’re just absolutely sick of having that horrid monitor. ‘If the buggers get him, they’ll make me look like his favorite uncle.’ ‘So what do we do? Surround him with enemies all the time?’ Too willing to submerge himself in someone else’s will.’ ‘That’s what you said about the brother.’ Or at least as close as we’re going to get.’ ‘I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card