The other adults in the family unit took the kids to a cabin up north over the recent school break. The cabin was decorated with seasonal and state-related geegaws and notions and faux-stamped signs–about bears and moose and lobsters and skiing and so on. Willa made a list of the signs; there were around 20. Her favorite sign portrayed a snowman complaining about the amount of snow: “Even I can’t take the snow anymore!” But when she first saw it, part of the sign was obscured by a lamp, so she misread it as an existential cry: “Even I can’t take it anymore!”