She is nine. They are in the park her mother, sister and her. She sits on the swing wearing her favorite dress of tiny white daisies on a red background, and asks her mother to push, to make her soar in the sky. The swing goes higher and higher. She sees the sky, deep blue, with whipped cream clouds. And then sees the earth as the swing comes back. Sky and earth. Blue and brown. Blue. Brown. Blue. Brown.

Her sister, a cranky two-year-old who everyone surprisingly finds cute, wants to ...