I say I promise to love her for ever and ever and ever (and I keep to myself all the lugubrious thoughts about how I will continue to do so from the Sweet Hereafter, too, and I want her to know this from her earliest memories). She thinks a moment, and promises that the curtains will always be there.

I promise to try my hardest to understand her, even when she grows and changes. She smiles and looks at me funny and says “I’ll always be me, even though I grow up.” And then she goes back to promising that she’ll always clean up her room.