The School of No

I’ve instituted a School of No. We call it “no” ingness.

When small children—especially young girls—come down here, we enroll them almost immediately in our School of No. We don’t want them to be too pliable. We want them to be able to say no. The beginning of wisdom is “no” ingness.

Even the little ones who come here have a jaded character to them—it’s really quite attractive. The phantasms leave them alone most of the time.

There are nights though when I hear them. When their wails make me wish that either the phantasms would leave them alone or that the little ones would learn to dance with them—which is the best way of making the phantasms go away.