78. Home. In her last journal entry, Sophie says that she’s happy to be home, and that Cody and Brian are staying with her for a couple of weeks. She says that her “now-parents” are relieved to have her back, and that they check in on her every night while she’s in bed. She writes that Cody and Brian have been exploring the Ohio River in their raft, which they’ve called “The Blue Bopper Wanderer.” She ends by saying that—harking back to the first chapter of the book—she’s not stuck in either a world of dreams, of facts, or stubbornness: she’s just present, here, right now. Sophie says that, when she closes her eyes, she still smells the sea—but she feels as if she’s “been dunked in the clear cool water” and re-emerged anew. She writes: “Bye-bye, Bompie. Bye-bye, sea.”
Quite remarkably, Sophie uses the term “now-parents” in order to designate that her adoptive parents are different than her biological ones. This shows that her mind has undergone a significant change—that she’s starting to accept her past and integrate it into her conscious mind. Like the “little kid” who wanted to forget about her past and be in the present moment, Sophie’s starting to do this, but while still being connected with a sense of her past at the same time. Sophie alludes back to the baptism in Grand Manan by saying she’s been dunked into a cleansing water and consequently reborn.