Song of the Mockingbird: My Journey with Josefina

I think I’m ready to go home, I tell Josefina. She asks if I’m sure, and I nod. But even as I do, I wonder which home I mean. Do I mean Josefina’s home? Or my modern adobe house with Mom and Dad and Henry inside? Or do I mean Chicago, the only place that’s ever been home to me before?

Then, I realize, as Josefina and I make our way down the sloping hills, with Sombrita springing ahead, that when I told Josefina I want to go home, the image in my mind wasn’t the rancho or Chicago. It was our Santa Fe house, with a high desert surrounding it.

I see what Dad means about the beauty of the desert now. The land seems different now, not just too hot or dusty or empty. This is Josefina’s home, and she loves it. Maybe it’s my home now, too. I wonder if I can make a life here, the way Josefina has. And it’s time for me to see.