Full Speed Ahead: My Journey with Kit

I ask Aunt Millie if people would come to the schoolhouse for a party. Kit lights up. We could have music, and maybe Mrs. Littlefield would sing, since she has a beautiful voice. Aunt Millie suggests square dancing, too, I add that we’ll need food, and Kit says it would be the perfect chance for people to borrow books.

Aunt Millie beams, but says the plan needs a practical purpose for these busy, hard-working folks. Maybe people could swap things, too. Kit explains that swaps are trades, like trading a spare shovel for a quilt, then the quilt for a washtub, a way to get what you need without spending money. Knowing they can get something useful draws more people, and more borrowed books. We call it a Beat-the-Depression Swap Party.

The next morning, we wake early to see Miss Myrtle off on Serena, spreading the word. Then Kit, Aunt Millie, Buddy, and I tell Mrs. Littlefield and baby Eli about the party. Afterward, we make salad and ready the schoolhouse, pushing back desks and sweeping the floor.

Now it’s finally time for the party. Kit and I help people lay out the food they’ve brought: watermelons, pies, stuffed peppers, and maple sugar candy. On the bookshelves, people pile up the things they’ve brought to swap.

Here’s how it works. People bring things they’ve made, grown, or no longer need. Mrs. Littlefield brings baby Eli’s outgrown clothes and a dozen eggs, and takes bigger clothes another mother left behind. Some people swap a skill instead of a good, one girl offers to teach another to knit in exchange for violin lessons, and a boy trades a promise to split wood for a warm hat, socks, and mittens. Everyone chooses a book to borrow, too.

When every swap is swapped, the dancing begins.

I always thought square dancing just meant dancing in squares. Miss Myrtle calls out steps I’ve never heard, and Kit and I do-si-do to the fiddle music until we can barely stand.

Outside cooling off, Kit and I eat the best peach pie I’ve ever tasted. Kit sighs and says the party was a smart idea. Everybody’s happy because they’re using what they have to get what they need.

I think about what I want, and I realize it’s more time with Mom, and a dog, of course. My heart beats faster. Kit has just given me the start of an idea.

It’s late by the time we walk home with Aunt Millie and Miss Myrtle, and later still when we crawl into bed, Buddy curled up beside me. Once Buddy and Kit are asleep, I look out the window, realizing how much Mountain Hollow has taught me about making good use of everything I have, even time, energy, and love. As much as I love being here with Kit, I’m ready to go home and put what I’ve learned into practice.