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Sunbeams

A child’s trust has the stubbornest roots: it takes far more digging than you would expect to pull out every little piece.

Deborah Moggach

Drinks

“I’m going to do you to death,” he said. “How about that. Not because you’re pretty, either, because you’re not, but because you can’t stop me. How about that.”

The Telephone

Anna Karenina, the Peace Corps, long-distance rates

Dancing

Miss Valentine’s School of Social Dance, jitterbugging in Calcutta, the “big girl’s ward” in the crippled children’s hospital

Avalon And The Dinosaurs

Being Wrong

Hitting your sister, watching the rice boil, jumping over the subway turnstiles

Discipline

The double-entry ledger system, pliés, a workable bicycle

Montana

Leaving The Dead

My mother wanted to flush our pet goldfish down the toilet. My brother and I thought we at least ought to look after its death since we hadn’t done much for its short life.

Wealth

The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, a warm smile, eight pieces of chocolate