Page 1631 - Enders_Game_Full_Book

To act according to some predictable pattern? I should laugh. But we've seen signs of honor. We've seen him do things that were very hard, but that seemed to be not just for show, but because he really believed in what he was doing. Of course, he might have simply been doing things that would make Locke seem virtuous and admirable. How can we know, when we can't ask him?"
"So you can't talk to him about what matters to you, because you know he'll despise you, and he can't talk to you about what matters to him, because you've never shown him that you actually have the understanding to grasp what he's thinking."
Tears sprang to her eyes and glistened there. "Sometimes I miss Valentine so much. She was so breathtakingly honest and good."
"So she told you she was Demosthenes?"
"No," said Mrs. Wiggin. "She was wise enough to know that if she didn't keep Peter's secret, it would split the family apart forever. No, she kept that hidden from us. But she made sure we knew just what kind of person Peter was. And about everything else in her life, everything Peter left for her to decide for herself, she told us that, and she listened to us, too, she cared what we thought."
"So you told her what you believe?"
"We didn't tell her about our faith," said Mrs. Wiggin. "But we taught her the results of that faith. We did the best we could."
"I'm sure you did," said Bean.
"I'm not stupid," said Mrs. Wiggin. "I know you despise us, just as we know Peter despises us." "I don't," said Bean.
"I've been lied to enough to recognize it when you do it."
"I don't despise you for ... I don't despise you at all," said Bean. "But you have to see that the way you all hide from each other, Peter growing up in a family where nobody tells anybody anything that matters-that doesn't make me really optimistic about ever being able to trust him. I'm about to put my life in his hands. And now I find out that in his whole life, he's never had an honest relationship with anybody."
Her eyes grew cold and distant then. "I see that I've provided you with useful information. Perhaps you should go now."
"I'm not judging you," said Bean.
"Don't be absurd, of course you are," said Mrs. Wiggin. "I'm not condemning you, then."