Janine stared at me. "You sound like an art critic," she said. "How do you know all that?" She looked very impressed.

I shrugged. "I don't know," I said. "I read about it, and look at books that have pictures of people's work." This didn't seem like a big deal to me, but I guess not everyone knows a Brancusi from a Noguchi. Anyway, I was kind of enjoying watching Janine's jaw drop. That’s not a sight I see too often.

I went back to the article. "Oh, awesome," I said. "This piece I saw in New York is going to be there. Ifs called 'Daphne'."

"Daphne?" repeated Janine. "That’s a name from the Roman myths. She was Apollo's first love, but she didn't love him back. In fact, she begged the gods to turn her into a tree so she could get away from him."

"That makes sense," I said, thoughtfully. "The sculpture is abstract, but when I saw it, I thought of a woman — and a tree. Ifs rounded, but there are these branches reaching up from it."

"Daphne became a laurel tree," said Janine, "and from then on laurel was very important to the Romans. They made laurel branches into wreaths, and ..."

I had stopped listening. Janine has this habit of telling you more about certain subjects than you ever want to know. I've learned to tune her out. I had started thinking about something else, anyway. Here's what it was: I was dying to go to that show, and I wanted to take someone with me, to share it.

Right away I thought of some of the children I baby-sit for. I love to baby-sit. I do it a lot, and I'm even in a dub that’s about babysitting. Ifs called the BSC, for Baby-sitters dub, and my best friends are in it. I'll tell you more about it later. Anyway, I was giving art