Actually, if you count sarcasm as irony, which it is, both Cici and Ruby are already pretty facile in it, but this is the incident that really impressed me with Cici. It's literary irony; we are currently reading Peter S. Beagle's [marvelous] The Last Unicorn at bedtime. It's the story of a unicorn, presumed to be the last in the world, who goes on a quest with a magician named Schmendrick and a woman named Molly Grue. The other night I was reading a chapter to the girls, and this exchange with Cici followed:
Dadam: "[Schmendrick] said . . . 'Now if they had wanted me to lift the curse - ah, that
I might have done. . . . Haven't you ever been in a fairy tale before? . . . The hero has to make a prophecy come true, and the villain is the one to stop him. . . . It's a great relief to find out about Prince Lir. I've been waiting for this tale to turn up a leading man.' . . . Molly said, 'If Lir is the hero, what is [the unicorn]?' 'That's different. Haggard and Lir and Drinn and you and I - we are in a fairy tale, and must go where it goes. But she is real. She is real.'"
Cici: Heh.
Dadam: What? What's funny?
Cici: Well, they're talking about being in a book.
Dadam: Oh yeah? Well, why's that funny?
Cici: Well, because they are in a book. Schmendrick is making a joke, when he says they're in a fairy tale, 'cause he thinks they're real - he doesn't mean it. But what's funny is, they actually are in a fairy tale, 'cause they're in a book. They're not real at all. It's a joke.
Dadam: I love you so much.
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