"How did you know? I mean...."
"I am very knowing," the girl said, smiling.
"Are you sufficiently knowing to be here?"
For an instant, as if doubt crossed her mind, the smile flickered. Then it came again, stronger. "Aren't you here?"
Johnson choked as bubbles from the tarmur seemed to go suddenly up his nose. "My dear child ..." he sputtered.
"I am not a child," she answered with a firm sureness that left no doubt in his mind that she knew what she was saying. "And my name is Vee Vee."
"Vee Vee? Um. That is...."
"Don't you think it's a nice name?"
"I certainly do. Probably the rest of it is even nicer."
"There is no more of it. Just Vee Vee. Like Topsy, I just grew."