Travels with Jessica

“A practice trip,” I say to Jessica. “You think we need a practice trip before we decide about going to Italy.”  Jessica loves to travel, and she spots a possibility for getting two trips instead of one. I don’t like to say she’s devious and manipulative, because I don’t think she actually knows how to…

“So are we going to Italy?” Jessica asks. “You said you would think about it.” “I am thinking about it. But it seems like it could be really hard.” “What will be hard about it?” “Well, I don’t speak the language.” “Mom. Sharon went to Italy and she doesn’t speak Italian.” Yes, but she does…

  “We should go to the Eastern Market today,” Jessica says as we stand on the sidewalk outside our hotel. Other people would have decided what they were going to do by now, but I have rather intensively planned three days of activities and now my brain is done. It is a beautiful Saturday morning,…

“We are going to Italy,” Jessica announces to her father on the phone. I have already discussed it with him, but apparently he makes suitable sounds of enthusiasm and excitement, because a smile spread across her face. “It is a good thing I already have a passport,” she adds, sounding very grown up and offhand…

I am standing on a subway platform in Washington, D.C., and trying to figure out how, exactly, to get to the line I want to get to, and Jessica is vibrating with anxiety next to me. “Do you know what you’re doing?” “Does it look like I know what I’m doing?” “Are we lost?” She…