First Words

In the morning following his encounter with Aldrin, Richard awoke to the rooster's crow. His small hand reached for the old book that had remained by his side all night. Feeling the texture of the worn cover beneath his tiny fingers, he opened it with hesitation.

He didn't exactly know what he was looking for, but there was a strange allure in the mystery presented by the unfamiliar symbols. As a successful businessman in his previous life, Richard had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and learning. But that morning, he also felt the skill of a new task: learning the language of this world.

"I'll try asking Mom to pronounce the names of these drawings; there are various drawings in this old book, from landscapes to some inventions of the time to things like coins. Well, I think they're coins," thought Richard.

He got up in his crib and, with a determined look in his brown eyes, called, "Mom!"

Margaret, who was in the small kitchen preparing breakfast, turned in surprise upon hearing his voice. She nearly dropped the pot she was holding when she heard him call her. Without delay, Margaret abandoned what she was doing and hurried to little Richard.

"Did you just call me, my little one?" she asked, a mix of surprise and excitement overflowing from her gaze.

Richard pointed to the book and to the drawing of a tree on the open page. "Tree!" he said, pronouncing the word with imperfect but remarkable clarity for a child his age. "Yes, my love, that's a tree," Margaret agreed.

In the days that followed, each morning began with a new learning session for Richard. With the worn book by his side, the brilliant baby would learn new words by pointing to different pictures. Margaret would say the names of the pictures aloud, and Richard would imitate her. It didn't take long for his basic vocabulary to expand beyond simple "mom" and "dad."

With each successive day, his pronunciation and understanding improved, progressing from random words to phrases. "Mom, water, please," became a frequent request, while "Dad, strong," became a favorite statement whenever he saw Robert at work.

Over the course of a month, Richard visibly mastered his speech, surprising both Margaret and Robert with his words. His parents couldn't believe their boy's uncommon ability to learn so quickly. Yet, while his father applauded with pride, his mother remained thoughtful. She felt there was something more to her son's abilities, something they didn't yet understand.

Using the book's drawings and his parents as guides, Richard learned various new words and realized that, although similar, the language of this world was different from his own. The alphabet was more a collection of symbols that, to the untrained eye, might appear as random scribbles. The only way to understand these symbols was by correlating what they represented with words in that language.

During this time, the worn book served as a useful guide, but more than anything, it was Margaret's love and education that opened the door to language for Richard.

There was something uniquely pure and sincere about the way Margaret taught Richard. Her lessons were not those of a teacher but of a mother who wanted to provide her child with all the tools to explore the world around him.

As a result of a month of collective effort, Richard could articulately express his needs and desires, although sometimes in short and malformed sentences. Nevertheless, this was enough to amaze his parents and even some close acquaintances.

Through this process, Richard not only learned to verbalize his thoughts but also began to understand the principles behind written words. In this process, he created a kind of mental dictionary to help him understand sentences, even though he still couldn't read everything perfectly; it was sufficient for him to grasp the basic structure of the language.

Although he was still in his infancy in mastering writing, Richard's persistent determination and Margaret's unwavering love for education had given him a solid foundation to face the challenges ahead. Realizing this, Richard smiled as he touched the worn book and looked out of his small window into the world.

A new era of learning had begun for Richard. Taking his first words and conversations as a positive sign, he was eager to master written language. Because, in the end, he realized that, regardless of how many lives he had, he could never give up on growth and evolution.

"I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I also knew that overcoming new challenges is what life truly means," thought Richard, his hand tightly holding the worn book. "With these first words, I've taken my first step. And the journey to learn everything this world has to offer is just beginning."

This first delivery of words and expressions was an immeasurable achievement for a one-year-old Richard. Although he couldn't predict what the future held, with his new language tools, he was definitely more prepared to face the challenges that would come. With a determined nod, Richard silently promised that no matter what lay ahead, he would not step back.

The next day, Richard seized a golden opportunity to understand more about this world. On this day, he was taken to the local market by Margaret.

With the book in hand and a keen eye, Richard watched attentively over his mother's shoulder as she shopped. While Margaret exchanged a few words with the fabric vendor, Richard saw an opportunity. He quickly flipped through the book's pages to find the drawing he remembered as resembling the coins Margaret held.

The coins were made of different metals, and after associating the words he heard with the labels in the book, Richard was fairly certain of his assumptions.

The smaller coin was made of copper. The slightly larger coins were bronze. The grander coins were silver, and the largest were gold.

Observing the transaction between Margaret and the fabric vendor, Richard could conclude that copper seemed to be the lowest value coin, followed by bronze, silver, and finally gold. Margaret exchanged three copper coins for a piece of fabric she intended to turn into winter socks.

At another stall, Margaret exchanged a bronze coin for a brand-new kitchen knife and some herbs. Through this observation, Richard grasped the relative value of these coins. Associating them with the system he knew in his previous life, Richard theorized that the copper coin was roughly equivalent to a dollar. Consequently, bronze was akin to 10 dollars, silver to 100 dollars, and gold to 1000 dollars.

Of course, it was only a rough estimate. He knew he couldn't take these values at face value, as economies varied greatly in detail. However, the relative pattern of these values would likely remain constant.

"This is a good start to understanding this world's economy," mused Richard. He understood that there were many other factors he would need to consider to make a more precise estimate, but he was satisfied with what he had learned.

During the short market excursion, Richard learned more about the world he now lived in. He became familiar with some of the local foods, bread, vegetables, fruits, cheese, milk, and even some peculiar types of meat that he found exotic.

With each new morsel of knowledge, Richard felt more confident in his new home. His unending curiosity mixed with his thirst for learning made little Richard an extraordinary explorer in this new and magical world. In the end, he concluded the day with a realization,

"The greatest wealth is knowledge, and I have a whole lifetime to learn everything I can about this new world. And undoubtedly, language

 and economics are the foundational bricks for understanding this place."

With this determination, as night fell on that day, Richard fell asleep in his mother's arms, dreaming of the new challenges that awaited him with the morning sun.