The Long Goodnight

One of the most astounding things about children is how much like actual people they are, and how quickly that happens. Our two, Boy and Girl, showed their idiosyncratic selves pretty much from the get- go. Deborah was giving me reports about Girl when she was in utero – “She’s really got a will,” Deborah reported.

(She should know, since her own stubborness shaped her and helped to get her where she is today. Which is across the room as I write this, but I mean it in a more general way – it got