[You have no idea how tempted I am to wish for pandas on Pluto right now,] he says, although it wouldn't exactly be hard for her to find out.
[The pandas would die, Alice. But you still think you'd have to wish for it, right? They are not there yet.]
[Not if they were magic pandas! But that's kind of my point,] he says. [I don't know that nobody else has wished for pandas on Pluto, and you don't either. The only way to actually find out would be to take a look at Pluto and check. If magic didn't exist I'd say there'd be no way a panda could've gotten to Pluto, but it does, so literally anything we can think of is possible because if we can think of it then so can somebody else and they might have a star.]
[...Are you saying the only reason you don't not believe in immortal souls is because it seems like the kind of thing somebody might have wished for?]
[Yeah, basically,] he agrees. [I mean, they might exist because of magic for some other reason I haven't thought of because I don't really care that much. Maybe they're what coins are made of.]
...Has Bella's mom noticed that they are having a totally silent conversation while eating their food?
No, Renée has been making intermittent remarks about a television show she picked up in the middle and does not understand. She expects no participation from either.
"Popsicles?" guesses Bella.
"Right in one," replies Renée, heading for the freezer. "I know Bella wants grape; what about you, Alice?"
"Let's see... lime, blue raspberry, cherry, orange, and lemon," Renée says. "And grape." She tosses Bella a wrapped purple popsicle and Bella unwraps it.
He gets a green one. Renée takes a red one. Soon they are all enjoying some popsicles, which are pleasant in the heat.
The particular way in which he is enjoying his popsicle is perhaps not wholly family-friendly, but it is probably difficult to pick up on that unless you happen to be reading his mind.
"You two must be so close," Renée says happily. "It's like you're having entire conversations, just looking at each other."
"I suppose," laughs Renée. "Who wants to go see a movie? I wonder what's playing..." She hunts for her newspaper to look at the listings.
"Sounds good to me," Bella says.
And so: they go watch Johnny Depp be a chocolate-manufacturing manchild and various odious children meet cartoonishly grisly fates.
He also thinks the horrible things happening to the kiddies are hilarious.
[Who the hell thought this shit up? It's amazing.]