1. In confidence, I am told that her older step brother (11) has a girlfriend; and that she phoned him on Valentine's Day. She has a scattering of freckles which look as if they have been artfully pencilled across her nose.
2. Gore runs down her chin. The other little girls look on horrified. Then she puts a finger in her mouth and pulls out a tiny bloody fragment. Another one for the toothfairy.
3. She reads to us from the book we sent her for her birthday. It was one of my favourites when I was her age, and she falters on the words that puzzled me -- "What's parapet? And what's ch... ch... chas-m... chasame?"
