Page 66 of Thorne

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"Add them."

"Forty-four."

"That's eleven times four."

A silence. I sense her testing it against the number in her head, checking its weight.

"Because eleven is ten and one." A slow pause follows as she lets the concept settle.

"Yes. Ten groups of four, plus one more group of four."

A pause.

"So eleven times anything is ten-times plus one-times."

"Yes."

"So it's always just the number written twice."

I stay very still. She just extracted the rule herself, in one leap, from one example. "For single digits. Yes."

"Eleven times seven is seventy-seven."

"Yes."

"Eleven times three is thirty-three."

"Yes."

"Eleven times nine is ninety-nine."

"Yes."

A pause. The sneakers shift. "What about eleven times eleven?"

I write it out on the scratch paper. Two digits now. Different rule. I push the method through.

11 × 11

First digit: 1

Middle: 1 + 1 = 2

Last digit: 1

Answer: 121

I hear her reading it.

"Add the two digits." The paper rustles as she reads the instructions. "Put the answer in the middle."

"For two-digit numbers. Yes."

A very long silence.

"One hundred and twenty-one." The whisper is very quiet.

"Yes."

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