Catch the Wind: My Journey with Caroline

Once the dizziness clears, I open my eyes to find myself back on the bank of my own pond. That same hummingbird from before I traveled to 1812 hovers in midair right beside me, and one blink later, it’s gone.

Laughing, I sink back into the grass as relief floods through me. I’m actually home. A hummingbird never lingers in one spot for long, so no real time could have passed here while I was busy meeting Caroline two centuries in the past.

Picturing how easily Caroline smiled at me, like we’d been friends forever from the moment we met, I can’t stop thinking about her. Right before I vanished, though, her eyes had filled with worry and sadness so deep it left me aching for her, too. I understand completely what it feels like to be scared and upset, and I regret never even asking if she was all right. Somewhere, her father is a prisoner, and I never found out how that happened or how long he’s been gone.

If I don’t go back, I realize with a sigh, I’ll spend forever wondering about her. And now that I actually understand how this compass works, going back is possible.

Still, is it really the smart choice to return somewhere cannon fire could start any second? Dad is constantly talking about making good decisions, reminding me every time I mess up that other options existed. He’d probably call traveling 200 years into the past, straight into the middle of a war, close to the worst decision anyone could make.