“What’s this say?” It asked, pointing at the words on the screen.
"'Religion. A set of beliefs agreed on by a group of people, traditionally about the purpose of the universe and life, often containing a moral code to follow.'"703Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgnOmjjLqoH
“What’s it mean?” It asked.
“Well, thousands of years ago people didn’t have the scientific explanations for things that happen we have today, so oftentimes they would make up stories for the explanation of things like rain, and they usually used a god or gods to cause whatever was happening. They can explain how the universe came to be, or how you should act, or how things work.”
“But they don’t believe it’s made up?”
“Well, not all religions are, in my eyes. I believe, for instance, that Christianity is true, much to everyone else’s frustration.”
“Why?” It asked.
“Because since I’m a Christian, I believe that you can only go to heaven after you die if you ask God for forgiveness from your sins, things you did wrong. But people don’t like admitting that they were wrong, in anything.”
It nodded sagely. “People are stupid.”
Mangle laughed. “Yeah, yeah, they really are, aren’t they? I’ve forgotten to put water in my instant noodles more times than I can count!”
“Explain more, please?” It asked.
“Well, a lot of people don’t like Christianity because they see God as someone who is vengeful and unforgiving, but it’s the exact opposite. He came down to Earth from heaven, and took the punishment of our sins so we wouldn’t have to. And when we ask for forgiveness, it’s given because our sins were already paid for, and we get to go to heaven when we die and be with God forever.”
It’s eyes widened. “Forever’s a long time.”
“Yeah. Yeah, it is. But that makes it better, because you get to be happy the whole time, and that means that you’re happy forever once you get there.”
It grinned. “I like that.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” It decided. “Sounds nice.”
Mangle leaned back. “Yeah...I look forward to it someday.”
They sat in silence for a little while. “...Could you teach me to read, Doc? I wanna learn more on my own.”
“Yeah, sure, let’s see what we can do.” They turned on their tablet and found a children’s alphabet book online for free. They downloaded it and opened it up, handing the tablet to It. “You can probably figure out how to work the tablet on your own, I’ll just tell you what each of the letters are when you turn to that page.”
It frowned at the tablet, and touched the screen. Two arrows came up on opposite sides of the tablet. It clicked the one pointing towards the right, and the page turned. “Woah! Did you see that, Doc?”
Mangle nodded. “I did. You got to the first page, good job. The letter in the corner there? That’s an a.”
It formed the letter a with its mouth. “Why’s there two of them?”
“There’s an uppercase, and a lowercase. Depending on where you’re writing in a sentence, you’ll use different cases.”
It frowned. “So each letter has two different squiggles to represent it?”
Mangle blinked. “...Yes.”
It looked back at the page. “This’ll be hard...there’s an apple, and an airplane! Do those...start with ‘a’?”
Mangle nodded. “Yeah. Go to the next page.”
It pressed the arrow and Mangle pointed. “That’s a b.”
“It starts ball, basket...wow! B is really important!”
They went through the entire book, seeing cup and cake, dog, drum, elephant, egg, feather, face, grape, happy, ice cream, jack-o-lantern, key, lemon, mouse, nest, ostrich, pineapple, queen, ring, stripes, toddler, umbrella, vacuum (which It asked about in copious amounts of questions), weather, xylophone, yam, and zoo. When they finished, It flipped through to pages where it liked pictures, or couldn’t remember a letter. It retained the information at an alarming rate. By the end of the day, It could name any letter on sight, and was tracing them with its fingers, mouthing them carefully. Mangle sat at the desk in the room and was writing reports when It climbed on their lap and started pointing at letters. “M...a...n...g...l...e. What’s that spell?”
“Mangle,” Mangle replied. “It’s my name.”
“J...e...s...s. Is that your name too?”
Mangle nodded. “My full name is Jess Taylor Mangle.”
It laid its cheek on the desk. “I only have one name,” It said despondently.
“You can come up with another, if you want. You came up with the first, why not another?”
It looked up at Mangle. “...Nah. If I want another name, I’d ask someone I like to name me. Like you.”
Mangle brushed It’s hair out of its eyes and smiled. “You like me that much?”
It nodded. “But I don’t need another name. I’m good with It, Doc. I like It. It has character.”
“And it confuses the heck out of people,” Mangle laughed.
It grinned. “That, too. I gotta go to the potty, okay?”
Mangle nodded. “See you soon, sweetheart.”
“Bye, Doc!” It laughed, grabbing the bathroom pass and ducking out of the room. Mangle locked the tablet to only allow it on certain books, and left it on the bed for It to look over when they were gone for the night. Something told them that It would appreciate the gesture.
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