Full Speed Ahead: My Journey with Kit

I’m nervous about going to Uncle Hendrick’s house, so as Kit and I walk, camera bouncing against my chest and Buddy trotting behind, I ask how he told the Kittredges I was coming. Kit says he wrote her parents a letter, plus one for her, and pulls it from her pocket.

I ask to read it, hoping it might reveal whether Uncle Hendrick has ever met the real Lucille. Kit hesitates, warning that it’s gruff, but I tell her nothing in it could hurt my feelings. She hands it over:

201 Chestnut Court
Cincinnati, Ohio
August 25, 1933

Kit,

It is most annoying and inconvenient, but my distant grandniece, Lucille, is coming to Cincinnati, and I have no interest in hosting her. She's your age, so she'll stay with your family instead. You and that pipsqueak boy Stirling can amuse her, for once making yourselves useful.

I'll pay Lucille's room and board, which your parents will welcome, desperate for money and foolishly bent on your mother's idea of running a boardinghouse. Mark my words. It will never earn enough to pay the mortgage or send your brother Charlie to college.

Sincerely,

Uncle Hendrick

Gruff is right. Kit shrugs and says I know how he is. The truth is I don’t. I switch directions and ask what a mortgage is. Kit explains it’s like rent, paid to the bank monthly. The Kittredges owe twenty dollars a month, or they lose the house.

That’s awful. The family could end up homeless. I ask about Charlie and college. Kit says he was supposed to study English literature, but there was no money for tuition. There’s nothing fair about the Depression, though Roosevelt’s programs try to help. Charlie joined one, the Civilian Conservation Corps, working at Glacier National Park in Montana and sending money home when he can. His leave ends soon, and Kit will miss him.

All of a sudden I miss Mom, and think about how hard she works to give me everything I need, something I’ve never given her enough credit for. I can’t imagine living in fear of homelessness like the Kittredges do.

Then I have a brainstorm. What if I go back to my own time, gather up all the cash I can find, and bring it back for Kit’s family? They need it, and I don’t. I’ve got thirty-five dollars of birthday money from Grandmother in my piggy bank, plus some spare change.