All of a sudden, the older—but not necessarily wiser—one of the two was shaken by a fit of laughter.


“Oh my God! I remember! You’re so dumb! I mean, I was so dumb! I… I wanted to climb a tree. We were on holiday and I’d promised my brother I could prove to him that humans evolved from monkeys, but, as soon as I put a foot on the trunk of the tree, I slipped, fell, and hit my knee on the exposed root of the tree.”


“Just one correction: you’re dumb, I’m not! And I know I can climb a tree, I just put the foot down wrong, that’s all.”


“I know, I know you can climb a tree. I still know how to do that, you know?”


“Sure! Only, you never do it anymore…”


“Oh, come on! That’s not exactly true now, is it?”


“Well, when was the last time you did it then?”


“Okay… you’re right, I… I don’t remember… But you know what I do remember?”


“What?”


“When you get back home, your grandma’s going to patch up that little rip on your knee and embroider a little purple heart on it. These overalls are the most special and unique overalls in the world. You need to make sure you wear them as much as possible now because, before you know it, you’ll be too big and dumb to wear and do what you want…”


Saying this, she held out a pinkie, with tears in her eyes, and said:


“Promise?”


“Promise” said the little girl wrapping that pinkie with her own little one and, bursting into tears, hugged herself tight—her older self, I mean.


A few minutes later, having let go of the hug and wiping her tears away from her face with the back of both her hands, the little girl asked herself:


“So, how did we get here?”


“Just a series of unfortunate events?”


“No. Take a good look at yourself in the mirror, Carmen. If you never take responsibility for where you are in your life you’ll never change where you are in your life.”