Full Speed Ahead: My Journey with Kit

Before we can even take a sigh of relief, Uncle Hendrick begins to scold us. Pretty soon, it feels as if the jail cell would’ve been more peaceful. Uncle Hendrick goes on and on about how he doesn’t like to drive, so Charlie needed to drive the car. After a few minutes, he stops and asks who I am. Kit bravely says that my name is Lulu. Kit’s uncle scowls and says my name sounds like a bird call. And he’s not pleased to meet me. The whole escapade was probably my idea. Perhaps I’ll be so kind as to pay him back for the collect call. He knows that Kit and her family don’t have a penny, much less thirty cents. In fact, he told Kit’s father not to buy the ridiculous house, but he didn’t listen. And now he’s lost his job. His own niece is reduced to a chambermaid running the boardinghouse, and Charlie has to become a common laborer in the fields of Montana. Here he is home on leave and he can’t get a job for love or money and he probably never will. Charlie’s neck reddens with anger, but he says nothing.

Kit interrupts Uncle Hendrick and says that Charlie is going to go to college when the Depression is over. Uncle Hendrick coughs and says that Charlie will never get to college. I’ve about had it with Uncle Hendrick’s bullying. I try not to be rude, but I firmly say that that’s not true. The Kittredges are resourceful. They’ll figure out a way.

Uncle Hendrick looks at me, flabbergasted. He surprised to see me talking. He’s not accustomed to being contradicted. So, he explodes in a rant. He says the job that Charlie has isn’t a real job. It’s just a make-work boondoggle cooked up by the lunatic in the White House, Roosevelt. And the sooner that we get rid of him, the better. They’re ruining the country. My ears perk up. I know something about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. And suddenly, I have a brainstorm.

I calmly ask Uncle Hendrick if he would like to make a bet. He asks what kind of bet, and I propose that if Roosevelt is reelected, then Uncle Hendrick should pay for Charlie to go to college. And if Roosevelt is elected two more times after that, then he should pay for Kit to go to college as well. Uncle Hendrick chortles and says that he’ll take the bet. First of all, the man in the White House is so terrible that he’ll probably be impeached. Second of all, he’ll never be reelected. And, no president has ever been elected to a third term, much less a fourth.

I shrug and say that if I’m wrong, Kit and Charlie will do chores for him, for free, for a year. I shake hands with Uncle Hendrick, and he chuckles merrily to himself for the rest of the ride home. He is confident that he is going to win the bet.

When we reach Uncle Hendrick’s house, he proclaims that he’s not going to drop us off at the Kittredges’ house. This is far enough. As stated, he does not like to drive. Kit’s face lights up, and she says that Charlie is going to be home on leave for another two weeks. Maybe we can make the best of him being home. He can drive Uncle Hendrick wherever he wants to go. But, Uncle Hendrick has to pay him. Uncle Hendrick sounds very testy as he says that that’s fine. He can begin by earning back the thirty cents that are owed to him from the collect call. Although Uncle Hendrick acts impatient, I get the feeling he’s actually happy about Kit’s proposal.

As we walk home, I can tell Charlie is happy, too. He says that he owes Kit a favor. Talk about making the best of your situation. That’s a stroke of genius. And then he turns to me and thanks me for trying. He appreciates how I stood up to Uncle Hendrick for him and Kit, even though there’s no way in the world they’ll win the bet. I tell him that if I were him, I would dust off his books and get cracking. And I tell Kit that college is in her future, too.

When we get back to the house, Kit and Charlie rush to the kitchen to tell their parents about the new job for Charlie as a driver. Buddy goes with them. I feel like it’s their private family time, so I hang back and sit on the back porch. It’s nice to feel the breeze on my face. I can hear the Kittredges all happy and laughing together inside, too. And suddenly, I miss my mom. I know Buddy will be fine with Kit and her family. But I realize it’s time for me to go home. I find a scrap of paper and a pencil on a table by the door and write a quick note to say goodbye to Kit and to thank you and her and her family. And then I pick up the camera.