" You worry too much about other people. Was I a really horrible child?”
“Not at all,” I say. “You were very cute. You had big blue eyes and little blond braids.”
“According to the stories I whined a lot.”
“It wasn’t whining,” I say. “You had a sensitive nervous system. You had an enhanced reaction to reality.”
“In other words, I whined a lot.”
“You wanted the world to be better than it was,” I say.
“No, that was you. You wanted that. I just wanted it to be better than it was for me.”
I sidestep that. “You were very affectionate,” I say. “You appreciated things. You appreciated them more than other people. You practically went into trances of rapture.”
“But I’m all right now,” she says. “Thank God for pharmaceuticals.”
“Yes,” I say. “You’re all right now. "

― Margaret Atwood , Moral Disorder and Other Stories