As we sped toward Chicago that night, marvelling at the misfortune of a bazillion bugs killed on our windshield over the course of a mere three days, we found ourselves quiet, tired, but resisting the ride home. Our dream trip was coming to an abrupt end... the little world we'd created inside the truck where mother and daughter transform into mischievous allies might fizzle the minute we pull into the driveway.


One month later, I watch my daughter for signs that our complicity could still be intact. There are the ups and downs of adolescence, the stress of school, the strain of work. There is the never-ending battle for attention in a family of six. But when it all comes down to it and we find ourselves alone in the kitchen of an evening, she making her traditional cup of tea and I tidying up, our eyes meet and lock... and sometimes they gleam and smile.

It is still there. Thank God.

So...where are we going next?