Full Speed Ahead: My Journey with Kit

We stumble down the embankment, cross a field, and end up on a narrow paved road. It’s very hot, and poor Buddy is exhausted. I’m tired and thirsty, but the bulls don’t let us stop to rest. Eventually, we come to a small town where painted sign welcomes us to Lewis Falls. Kit pokes me, and points to a hobo symbol scratched onto the sign. We both recognize it as the symbol for “jail.”

And sure enough, the bulls soon usher us into a red brick building, and my heart sinks when I see the sign that says “Lewis Falls Jail.” I used to dream of adventure, but I never dreamed of being put in jail. But at least it’s cooler inside. The bulls put Mr. Birdseye in a jail cell with some other men. They’re about to put Kit and me in a different cell when a stout lady bustles towards us.

She scolds the tallest bull. She says that they can’t put us in a jail cell. We’re just babies. The bull looks at her and says that we hopped a freight. We broke the law. The lady says that he shouldn’t mind that. We should be given over to her or he will regret it for a month of Sundays. The bull shrugs and gives Kit and me a little nudge toward the lady, and stalks off in a huff.

The lady sits us down on a bench and gives us cups of water from the water cooler. She even fills a cup for Buddy. When we’re done drinking, she says that she can tell that there’s someone at home whose mighty worried about us and our pup. She hands Kit a nickel and gestures toward a pay telephone on the wall. She says that we should call someone to come fetch us. Kit thanks the woman. The lady beams at us and says that we’re nice, polite girls. She knew it.

I ask Kit if she’s going to call her parents. Kit sighs. Her family doesn’t have a car. And they don’t have a phone at the house because they couldn’t pay for it anymore. There’s only one person to call: Uncle Hendrick. It’s a long distance, so he’ll have to be called collect. He’ll fuss and fume, but it’s our only chance.

I haven’t met this Uncle Hendrick, but he sounds grumpy. But I don’t care how much he fusses and fumes as long as he comes to the rescue. Kit stands up and goes to the phone. After she hangs up, she says that he is mad, but he’s coming. Charlie is going to drive him here. She returns the nickel to the lady.

We wait outside in the shade of the jail, and I ask who Uncle Hendrick is. Kit says that he is her mother’s uncle. He lives in a big fancy house all by himself. And he never misses a chance to criticize the family. I tell her that he sounds annoying, like my Aunt Shelley, who once told me that I needed a manicure. But I’ll be happy to meet Charlie. Kit says that I’ll like him. He’s at home on leave from the Civilian Conservation Corps. He’s helping to build roads and bridges in Glacier Park, Montana.

I don’t have a brother myself, so I am curious about Charlie. I ask Kit if he likes working in Montana. Kit says yes. And he’s proud that he’s helping our family with the money he sends home every month. Before the Depression, Charlie’s dream was to go to college and study English literature. But after Dad lost his job, there was no money for college.

I ask how much the tuition is, and Kit says it’s forty-five dollars a year. Nearly $200 for all four years. Kit shakes her head at the staggering impossibility of the sum. I happen to know that the college my lunkhead cousin goes to cost $45,000 a year. Aunt Shelley is constantly whining-but-really-bragging about it. But I know that to Kit’s family, forty-five dollars might as well be a million. I’m impressed when Kit sits up straighter and looks me in the eye and says that somehow, she’s going to figure out how to pay for Charlie to go to college. I tell Kit that if anybody can do it, it’s her.

And then, I asked Kit if she would like to go to college, too. Kit nods and quietly tells me that she would love to go to college to study journalism. She wants to be a reporter when she grows up. But she might as well be asking for the moon. Now I have a secret wish: that I can make it possible for Kit to go to college. It just burns me how my cousin, who seems to be majoring in skateboarding, can go to college and Kit and Charlie can’t.

After a while, a big fancy car pulls up. A good-looking guy, who is obviously Charlie, is driving, and a cranky looking man who must be Uncle Hendrick is sitting like a king in the backseat. Charlie jumps out and picks up Kit in a swinging hug. Kit introduces us, and he grins at me. He tells me that for a pint-sized girl, I seem to stir up a lot of trouble. I blush. Why do I always look the most ridiculous when I least want to?

Uncle Hendrick, who doesn’t even bother to get out of the car, shouts through the window that we’ve got to get going. He doesn’t have all day. We all clamber into the car. Uncle Hendrick orders that I hold Buddy in my lap. Mr. Hendrick doesn’t want him shedding all over the upholstery. I pick up Buddy, and we are off.