I’m home, and it sure is nice to be home. Cody and Brian are here for a couple of weeks too.
I can tell that my now-parents are awfully relieved that I made it back in one piece. They keep coming into my room at night and sitting on the edge of my bed, and when I open my eyes, they say, “You okay? You need anything?” and I say, “I’m just fine.”
On the first night home, my dad made barbecued chicken and corn on the cob, my favorites.
Cody said, “Yum, beauteous chicken!”
Brian said, “Yum, beauteous corn on the cob!”
For dessert we had great big chocolate fudge sundaes. Brian said, “Guess we’re going to have to show them how to make pie.”
Yesterday, Cody and Brian and I were standing by the Ohio River, watching the current carry branches and leaves down under the train bridge and along, beyond it, round the bend.
“Don’t you wonder what’s around that bend?” Cody asked.
“You been there, Sophie?” Brian asked.
“Nope,” I said. “Not yet.”
“Well?” Cody said. “What do you think? Want to cast off the flibbergibbet on The Blue Bopper Wanderer and go that way?”
“Soon as we get some wooden paddle thingys,” I said.
Brian said, “Huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh.”
I’m not in dreamland or earthland or mule-land. I’m just right here, right now. When I close my eyes, I can still smell the sea, but I feel as if I’ve been dunked in the clear cool water and I’ve come out all clean and new.
Bye-bye, Bompie. Bye-bye, sea.