She studied Deena. Her daughter looked angry and beautiful and very… regular. No uppity princess here

“T

his is the song that never endssss. It just goes on and on my friennnnds!”

Libby smirks and looks over at Akiva. She’d taught the kids the age-old camp cheer around an hour ago, and it was still going strong, although she might have just heard Deena threaten to kill the next person who lustily sang the chant.

“Ooookay,” she broke in. “Next song! Who knows 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall?”

They don’t know it. Akiva taught this one with gusto, she closed her eyes.

She might be crazy. She might have totally and completely lost her mind. In fact, she’s pretty sure she has.

Road trips were the bane of her existence growing up. Everyone around her was going to sleepaway camp or Eretz Yisrael or Europe, and there was her family, packed like sardines in the old maroon Toyota minivan, off to Fire Island or New Hampshire to some low-budget motel room for the nine of them. But her parents had never done a Succos road trip; they were smarter than she was, that’s for sure.

“The sechach is poking me again,” Deena said through gritted teeth.

Libby sighed. The pop-up succah was turning into a bit of a hassle.

“It’s okay, guys, we’re almost at the rest stop. We’ll stretch, check out some postcards, have a bite, and then head back into the car,” she said brightly.

There was silence and then Binny asked, “What’s a postcard?”

She looked at Akiva. “We’re old,” she shared.