She blinked and told him to come away with her to a magical land. “By a magical land,” she told him, “I mean a place that not everybody can see, a place with—” “With mermaids?” Elliot asked. “I don’t need you to explain to me the concept of a magical land filled with fantastic creatures that only certain special children can enter. I am acquainted with the last several centuries of popular culture. There are books. And cartoons, for the illiterate.”
