"I am not entirely lacking in tan," Pär observed with pleasure, holding his lightly browned arm against Jeremiah's pale little arm for contrast.

"You've got a good tan," I agreed. "But your hair hasn't gotten blond enough yet this summer."

"I know," he sighed.

"It's because I used to put bleaching stuff into your shampoo, but I can't do it anymore since you stopped using shampoo."

"Aha," he said. He blinked at me uncertainly. "Did you really?"

"Yeah. I figured the blond was what you wanted, but you wouldn't want to know about the bleach."

"That's exactly right." He pondered it over.

I went into the bathroom to shower. As I was stripping down, he called out from the bedroom, "We should do that again!"

"What," I called back, "use highlighting shampoo?"

"No, I don't like shampoo anymore. But put something in my hair."

"Let me know the next time you're going to be out in the sun for a while, and I'll rub some lemon juice through it."

"Lemon juice!"

"It brings out highlights and it's natural," I told him, waiting for the conversation to end so I could turn on the water.

"How about vinegar!"

"Uh, does that work?"

"I dunno, it's food! How about mashed potatoes!"

"Yes, okay," I said patiently.

"Riiight," he acknowledged, "the joke's over."