Tomorrow

Time is elusive. If you didn’t already know that, ask any child. Today, tomorrow, yesterday, last night...it means all about the same thing. And a moment? That equals eternity.

Strangely enough, Emry has a rather good sense of time. She understands today. She knows that tomorrow is later than today. And she knows that last night (which also means yesterday to her) is before today. Hence the conversation in the car last week.

Emry has a favorite CD in the car: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. (Wonder where she gets that from? I mean, I only have every soundtrack version of it…) So, it’s quite normal that she climbs in, gets bored and asks, “Papa, I listen to Beauty and the Beast?”

As you can imagine, Ed is not as big a fan as Emry and me. This time, stalling to switch it on, he says to me, “We need more options.”

I think about other options I have. My CDs are at home, but my ancient iPod (from 2006) is in the car, chocked full of music. And one song Emry loves: Tomorrow from the musical Annie.

“Emry,” I ask, pulling the iPod from the console, “would you like to listen to Tomorrow?”

“No!” Emry groans. “I want to listen to it today!”