It isn't the beginning, but certainly not the end

Young children ask a lot of questions. Both Abigail's father and myself were known to be avid questioners when we were around her age. Abigail has inherited our trait, apparently. For months now, she has been asking the most amazing questions. There is so much going on in her brain, and the questions she asks are profound, surprising, and generally quite astute.
Abigail will be five years old in a few weeks. I cannot put a precise date on the first amazing question, and many have slipped away as I have thought that her queries would make a great blog subject. And although I regret the lost questions, she continues everyday to show us that she is still capable of asking even more. So, without further ado, I give you her questions for yesterday and the day before:
Yesterday (said to her Grandmother who is visiting for a few weeks and leaving soon): Why don't I live with you?
Day before yesterday: Why do trains go so fast?

Brief explanation: We don't know if Abigail is fed up with living with her mother, father, and two sisters (Abigail lives in the netherworld of being the middle sibling) or if she just wonders if Grandma's house is more comfortable. At any rate, the question was posed with complete innocence, as if to say, "Why here, and not there?". Why indeed. A hundred years ago, her grandmother probably would have been living in the same house as part of an extended family. In many ways, our current lifestyle belies her logic...

As for why trains go fast, we were on a train bound for our home in Toulouse from Paris and Abigail was watching intently out the window as the scenery sped past. One has to not only listen to Abigail's questions, but her intonation. It seemed that she didn't want to know why trains go fast, but rather, how they can go fast. Not being sure, I initially replied, "So they can get to where they need to quickly." She asked the question again, which is her way of indicating that we didn't satisfy her curiosity. I had suspected she wanted to know how trains could go fast, so I spoke of the tracks that have no real obstacles, that are made just for the trains and don't have to contend with traffic. She was clearly pleased to know that we were the priority traffic on that route.