“Real. That’s what that says, real.”
We’re sat out on the porch in Pinamar and my six-year-old daughter is drawing and writing in her notebook while her younger brother and sister play in the garden with four-ton, the dog. The six-year-old stops and looks up at me and says, “How do you spell real?” I help her spell it out and she writes it down, first once and then a second time. I can hear her sounding out the word as she writes it.
“What are you writing?” I ask.
“My Father Christmas list.”
“What’s the real for?”
“I put it after jewelry and camera, to make sure Father Christmas knows that I want real jewelry and a real camera.”
“Oh,” I think.
