We're going to get to a point where we have to avoid playgrounds all together.

And they'll probably be back toward the end of the event, too. It's good to have company. It helps us keep awake.

You don't feel tired afterward, you just do whatever and then go to sleep for 10 hours. Then it's back to normal.

You just gotta have the desire to do something to make it possible. Human beings have that capacity. And being born with no talent to draw at all is the best thing ever. Because you start from nothing. And because you started from nothing, you can be everything.

Where mermaids live looks a bit like your pool.' said Bernard. 'Except they build houses out of whale bones and the wreckage of sunken ships. They play chess with seahorses. They wear capes of fish scales and sleep on beds made from seaweed.'

As we listened, I thought I heard a slight splashing from the far end of the pool.

'At night,' Bernard continued, 'they turn on an electric eel for a night-light, and they light a fire, and the smoke goes up a chimney made from coral.'

'Wait a minute,' interupted Zoe, clearly immersed in Bernard's description. 'If they live underwater, how could they have a fire?'

'You should ask them,' said Bernard.

Zoe and I open our eyes.

Now, look, I know the light was just playing tricks on us. And I know we'd all probably inhaled too much sequin glue. But for the briefest moment, the blue of Zoe's pool gave way to deeper, darker aqua-colored water. The few plants and rocks were replaced with a lagoon and a waterfall where several mermaids lounged half in the water, half in the sun. They splashed and dove, their laughter making the same sound as the water.

Jacques wants a pancake shaped like Mozart's Symphony No. 40! In G minor!