Catch the Wind: My Journey with Caroline

I sleep on a bed of blankets and quilts on Caroline’s floor. It’s comfortable enough, but I’m still wide awake before the sun rises. So I decide I should slip away before she wakes. I want to write her a note, but I don’t see any paper. But then, I find a little slate, the kind pioneer kids used in their one-room schoolhouses. I scratch out my goodbye with the thin slate pencil and lean it on the wall.

I wind Caroline’s pink ribbon carefully around the compass and make sure the N for north is still showing. Then, I turn myself around slowly until the needle swings toward me. And then I wait for the dizziness.

First the pond comes into view, then the familiar woods, then a hummingbird buzzing right beside me. No time at all seems to have passed. The little bird darts off, and to my delight, Caroline’s ribbon has traveled home with me. I tuck it into my pocket and start down the path through the trees.

I’ve loved traveling to 1812 in Sackets Harbor, but it feels wonderful to be home again, too. The back door swings open as I get close to my own yard, and Mom, Dad, and the twins pour outside. Dad calls out asking who wants to play soccer. Both Britney and Sasha shout yes. Even though neither one is really old enough for it, they’ve been to a lot of my games, so they like to kick the ball around. Mom digs the ball out from under a rosebush and rolls it across the grass for them to chase.

Even as I smile, a lump rises in my throat. Part of me still wishes Mom got to stay home, the way Caroline’s mother does, but at least Mom and I have email and video calls now. Caroline has nothing like that. She’s stuck staring out over a huge lake, missing her father with no way to reach him. It hits me just how much easier things are now than they were 200 years ago.

It’s going to be hard watching Mom leave, but I’m done wasting the time we still have. Stepping out of the woods, I call out and ask if I can join the game.