Truth or Fiction?

Tonight Kate spent quite some time in the bath. When she was done she related an elaborate story, lasting at least 20 minutes, about the Great San Francisco Bay Tsunami, and her home becoming a Noah’s Ark for all kinds of animals and aquatic life. She prefaced the story by noting, very carefully, that it was fiction, but that about a third of the way through, it turned to fantasy, especially the part where she started helping unicorns and people like Rapunzel. I asked her what the difference was between fantasy and fiction. She said that fiction “is something that has never happened, but could happen.” Fantasy, however, was something “made up that could never really happen, like sea horses galloping on land or unicorns flying through the air.” I doubt any English teacher could improve on that distinction. She is quite a girl, with quite an imagination. Maybe we have a little writer on our hands.

Alden, who shared the long bath with her tonight, is still of simpler thoughts. All he wanted to do afterwards was “dance with Shrek” before going to bed. And so they are in their shared room, Shrek soundtrack blaring, dancing away. Contrary to Kate’s bright lines, truth and fiction seem to inhabit the same space in our house on many happy days.