Christine gave her uncle a confused look as he answered without a no and without a yes. Sometimes her uncle gave her answers that she didn’t yet understand completely. Then he continued and she nodded to show that she knew the secret was a secret. She decided that she would tell her mother and father, but no one else. She didn’t want to have the container and Argent and have to explain it too late to her parents.<br/><br/>She chucked as her uncle ruffled her hair and this listened carefully to his explanation, whispering ‘mercury’ under her breath. She sighed at her Uncle’s suggestion not to take the thermometers from school. She felt, from what her Uncle said, that thermometer insides were better for Argent than iron. She decided that she would search for a bigger container before she fed Argent next. “That’s alright, Uncle Anton. Thank you again for the present. I love Argent.” She understood busy. Her father was getting busier as well. There was something in the way that he acted that had changed, and he and Mother whispered together a lot more now. She could tell something was changing, but she couldn’t understand what it was. Perhaps this was just part of becoming a big girl. She took the container and smiled at the bottled Argent, holding it securely.<br/><br/>She spoke with her uncle for a little longer, hugging him before he left. Then she walked back over to her journal. Picking it up she walked to her bedroom. There she set the bottled Argent on her bed and opened the journal again, writing:<br/><br/>‘I have another secret now. Uncle gives me all the best secrets. I hope this one stays with me for a while. I need to find another container before I can feed it again…’<br/><br/>She continued to journal, trying to talk about Argent without breaking the secret, until Mother called her down to help set the table for dinner.. Christine tucked the container carefully on her nightstand and then hopped down the stairs to the dining room. A part of her wanted the evening to be over. She wanted to go to school the next day and look at the thermometers. Not take them. Uncle told her not to. She just wanted to see the mercury.<br/><br/><br/>((I figured things would change a bit when the war started. Pre wars and wars tend to change home lives and people in the process. I’ll work on character development then, unless you feel the need to develop the Uncle more.))