The Final Stretch

During the last leg of our trip, after stopping in Lexington for dinner, and just about an hour and a half from home, all hell broke lose for a little while. The sun was setting, so I asked Sofia if she had noticed it yet. That started a series of questions Lionel and I could only half answer and would have preferred not to face, especially after being in the car all day. It all started with "What is the sun made of? Is it made of fire? Would I burn myself if I touched it? Who made it and who put it there?"

At one point Lionel told Sofia that God made the sun, which prompted round two of the questioning with even more difficult religious and philosophical subjects that neither Lionel or I are well equipped to answer: "Is God a man? Does he have a mom and a dad like us? Where does he live? Can we go there?"

I was so flustered I couldn't even answer. I was taken over by a nervous laugh, and resorted to telling her she was tired and needed to close her eyes and try to fall asleep. But before she did, Lionel told her you needed to be nice ALL the time if you wanted to go to Heaven - where God lives. And if you were not, you had to go to a place where it is really hot, and you don't really want to be there. As he said that I could see Sofia's face and could sense the worry that comes from knowing you haven't always behaved. Maybe it was this last scary thought that made her agree that it was time to call it a day.

Bella in the meantime, oblivious to the conversation, was enjoying some last minutes with my iPhone. When we finally told her it was time to sleep - and I took the phone away - she completely lost it and started to cry and scream. At that point, knowing the poor child had been strapped to her car seat pretty much all day, I knew there wasn't much I could do to make her feel better. She was so tired that it was time to cry it out.

As a last resort to have a peaceful end to our trip I also moved to the back seat with them. I didn't have much room and had to squeeze in between the two car seats, but that calmed Bella down. She eventually fell asleep, just like Sofia, and I was able to finish writing this. By then we had finally made it home. Vacation was officially over, and we were back where we belong.