Interlude: The Matrons thoughts

Agatha Lawrence remembered when she had first met Noah Adams.

He had been a small sickly thing back then, not even able to eat by himself.

She had thought the world cruel back then. How a child, who'd already lost his parents at the young age of six, was guaranteed by the doctors to live a miserable short few decades before succumbing to his rapidly failing health.

It was even more unfair when the world decided that the child hadn't suffered enough and took his leg.

But regardless of everything, Agatha had still tried to let him enjoy life as much as she could… not that she had much success, due in parts to having to take care of too many other children and not having enough funds to do so.

Yet even with everything she tried it wasn't enough. He always looked miserable, barely talked to any of the other children and spent most of his day in his bed.

It eventually got to the point where she'd have to coax him to even eat anything… but one day everything changed.

Suddenly Noah was coming down from his room nearly every day, he was eating the food without coaxing and while he still didn't become friends with any of the other children, he was polite with them.

However, because the world wasn't fair, the change came at a cost.

His asthma worsened, with him having asthma attacks multiple times a night, his crippled leg began tripping him a lot more and throughout these he absolutely insisted on going on walks.

It got to the point that she was tempted to stop his trips to the abandoned tree house in the woods that he'd made his 'hideout'.

But in the end she didn't because, despite the pain it seemed to cause him, he was happier than she had ever seen him.

Even then she had been quickly reaching her limit as he slowly began looking more and more sickly but just as she had been about to force the boy to stay in bed another miraculous change occurred.

He began getting better.

Initially she'd panicked, thinking that it might be some sort of final burst of energy, and had called the doctor repeatedly but in the end they'd all said the same thing. He was recovering from his unrecoverable condition.

The months after she had heard that had been like a dream for her as, slowly but surely, the crippled boy who'd had trouble doing anything transformed into a normal young boy who could run and play like everyone else.

Oh sure, he still didn't seem interested in making friends with any of the other children but that was fine since he appeared to be focusing all of that effort on his education and newfound physicality.

Agatha had trouble describing the sheer joy she had felt when she'd learnt he got the highest possible grade in his SAT's and when she saw him running in the park longer than any of the other children.

Really it was only expected that he had gotten a scholarship for a prestigious boarding school in Scotland.

Of course, just because he'd gotten into a prestigious school didn't mean he'd rest on his laurels.

Instead, much to her pride, he'd immediately began studying the books he'd gotten the moment he came back, only taking breaks to visit the treehouse in the woods and even then he took the books with him!

Yes, Agatha Lawrence remembered when she first met Noah Adam and she remembered the progress he made over the few years since she met him.

That's why she was sure that he'd continue progressing until he was someone great.