The Soup of Peru

SCENE: Driving down the highway in the Impala, Patch (age four) in the back seat.


PATCH: Hey Daddy?

ME: Yeah?

PATCH: I have a problem.

ME: Oh, no! What’s the matter, sweetie?

PATCH: I CAN’T GET PERU OUT OF MY HEAD!

ME: Oh dear. That is a problem. Were you learning about Peru today in pre-school?

PATCH: Yes. I want to go visit Peru.

ME: Maybe when you’re an adult you can do that. You can travel anywhere in the world when you’re an adult.

PATCH: I was thinking like when I’m eight or nine.

ME: Oh, okay. So, you like Peru?

PATCH: I LOVE Peru.

ME: What do you like best about it?

PATCH: The soup!

ME: The soup?!? Not the llamas, or the mountains, or the beaches?

PATCH: I love the soup. Peru makes the best soup!



And such was a half-hour of our journey last night: all things Peru seen through the eyes of a four-year-old. I love ’em when they’re first starting to really talk, first starting to formulate opinionated thoughts in their little noggins, trying to get a point across with their blossoming menagerie of words and sentences.