““And that was the point of children, thought Caroline Middey: to bind us to the earth and to the present, to distract us from death. A distraction dressed as a blessing: but dressed so well, and so truly, that it became a blessing. Or maybe it was the other way around: a blessing first, before a distraction. ...But she did not think any more about it because at her back, suddenly, the child woke from her nap, and she rose at once to go to her. (p. 124)””