She said nothing in her stop-being-silly-I’m-not-going-to-encourage-you way. Just ignore him and he’ll go away, my mother used to say to Gillian when we were young and I bugged her. Just ignore him. All he wants is attention. In retrospect there seems to be something almost cruel about that — to simultaneously acknowledge and refuse someone’s desire for attention — especially a child’s. All he wants is attention, as if it’s bad to want attention, like wanting money or power or fame. Perhaps it’s why I prefer to be ignored now; I’ve been warped in some irreversible way.