diff --git a/atom b/atom
index 971516d..0360da2 100755
--- a/atom
+++ b/atom
@@ -270,6 +270,10 @@ openDatabase() {
 }
 
 closeDatabase() {
+	echo .quit >&3
+	(( debug )) && echo -n "Waiting for SQLite to terminate... "
+	wait
+	(( debug )) && echo OK
 	exec 3>&-
 	exec 4<&-
 	rm "$tempdir"/sqlite.{in,out}