What can I say, just getting word to read aloud forces clean up. I can see the rehab shining through just as I slog away and away. I like it because it mechanically works the students working memory. It is so wrong in so many ways. George and Viola Lay an egg. George and Viola have been friends for a long time.They are two of the most caring nano-vultures you will ever meet.Let me tell you where they live.They live in a forest but being very small they live in a clump of grass on the forest floor.Have you ever laid in the grass and seen how it’s a tiny forest down there?Well for tiny birds like nano-vultures a clump of grass is like a forest.So, for George and Viola they lived in a forest within a forest.But there is more, they lived in a tiny crack in a blade of grass which was just like another forest.So, for George and Viola they live in a forest within a forest within a forest.George said to Viola, “Dear, its about time we heard the pitter patter of little nano-vulture feet”Viola looked at George down her big striped beak and said, “How many George?”Now George was not that good with numbers, there were so many wonderful things that happen when you are as small as a nano-vulture you know. George thought. “Two!”George could see Viola thinking.“I know 18!” offered George. That was a bigger number. That was the biggest number George had ever heard, but he was not much in the way of counting because there was always so much else to see and do if you were a nano-vulture.“Right-O then George, you had better get a nest ready for 18 nano-vulture eggs” said ViolaGeorge was very excited he had something to do. He had seen lots of TV programs on building your own nest. He flew back and forth picking up twigs, all the while never leaving the tiny crack, in the blade of grass, in the forest.And by and by, when George felt he had the perfect nest, he thought to himself “I have the perfect nest not too big and not too small”, and he said to Viola “Come and look at the perfect nest, its not to big and not too small”.Viola flew over to George, the time was fast approaching for her to lay the 18 nano-vulture eggs. “Why darling, that is the perfect nest, not too big and not too small”. The nest was just big enough to hold just one nano-vulture egg.George, thought for a bit, his feathers became ruffled a sure sign he was worried and upset.“George, it is perfect” Viola consoled him. “Nano-vulture eggs, slide through each other so all our eggs will fit in this perfect nest”Let me tell you about nano-vulture eggs, and unlike other children’s stories where you may never see a glass slipper or a ginger bread house, I can guarantee you will see a nano-vulture egg. They are called electrons and you will hear of them all the time when you are older because they are real. We have learnt to tame electrons and get them to do all kinds of things like lighting up your bedroom, powering your toys, or running a cake mixer. Nano-vulture eggs aren’t like the eggs you see in the fridge or at Easter, they have no shell. If they have no shell, they have no inside or outside. As you get closer to them there is more of it until you pass right through the center and then there is less of it. It is like walking through a ghost. This is what Viola meant when she said, “Slide through each other”, unlike the eggs in your fridge the nano-vulture eggs can pile into the same spot.Now there is something else you should know, and every nano-vulture knows that the eggs come in two colours pink for boy eggs and blue for girl eggs. That’s just the way it is. Years later you will remember this story but for “electrons” instead of boy and girl its called “spin up” and “spin down”. You don’t have to worry about any of that now, lets get back to the story.Viola had that look in her eye. “Squark” She laid a nano-vulture egg.“Blue, it’s a blue egg, a boy! . . . . er. . . . it’s a girl!” cried George.George was amazed, this was the most wonderful thing that happened in the crack in a
