on returning home

a riff on finishing

We took a family vacation last week.

Our trip was prime time.

Our connection and pleasure to be together?

Sublime.

Getting ready we were all excited.

We all pitched in.

And?

We were successful.

We only forgot a couple of bathing suit components.

This error was easily fixed.

I’ll remember moments of this trip for the rest of my life.

It was that great.

The drive home?

More or less uneventful.

Well…

Until the end.

The last fifty kilometers were fraught.

The kitten meowed on and off for most of the ride.

Fifty kilometers from home she started getting louder.

She likely needed some sand to scratch, roll in, and eventually, relieve herself.

Her insistent yowling suggested that she would soon void herself in her cat carrier.

Having had cats void themselves in cat carriers in the past, my foot became heavy as I egged our little red van along a little faster than the government suggested safe.

The yowl grew.

Her brother began to mew.

Together they sounded like an air raid siren slowly growing and shrinking with in…