Full Speed Ahead: My Journey with Kit

Before we can catch our breath, Uncle Hendrick starts scolding us, going on about how he hates driving and Charlie should have taken the wheel. After a while he stops and asks who I am. Kit says my name is Lulu, and Uncle Hendrick scowls that it sounds like a bird call. He’s not pleased to meet me, blames the escapade on me, and adds that I owe him for the collect call. He knows the Kittredges don’t have a penny, reminds us he warned Kit’s father not to buy the house, and notes that Charlie now labors in the fields of Montana and can’t find work even home on leave.

Charlie’s neck reddens with anger, but he says nothing.

Kit interrupts to say Charlie is going to college once the Depression is over. Uncle Hendrick scoffs that he never will. I’ve had enough of his bullying, so I say firmly that the Kittredges are resourceful. They’ll find a way.

Uncle Hendrick startles, unused to being contradicted, and launches into a rant. Charlie’s job isn’t real work, just a make-work boondoggle cooked up by that lunatic Roosevelt, and the sooner the country gets rid of him, the better. My ears perk up, since I know something about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and suddenly I have a brainstorm.

I calmly ask if Uncle Hendrick wants to make a bet. If Roosevelt is reelected, he pays for Charlie’s college, and if Roosevelt is elected two more times after that, he pays for Kit’s college, too. Uncle Hendrick chortles and takes the bet. The man in the White House is so terrible he’ll probably be impeached, and besides, no president has ever been elected to a third term, much less a fourth.

I shrug and add that if I’m wrong, Kit and Charlie will do his chores for free for a year. We shake hands, and he chuckles the rest of the ride home, confident he’s won.

At Uncle Hendrick’s house, he announces he won’t drive any farther. Kit’s face lights up. Charlie is home on leave for two more weeks, and he could drive Uncle Hendrick wherever he needs to go, for pay. Uncle Hendrick sounds testy but agrees, saying Charlie can start by earning back the thirty cents owed for the collect call. Impatient as he acts, I can tell he’s pleased with Kit’s idea.

Walking home, Charlie is pleased, too. He calls Kit’s plan a stroke of genius and thanks me for standing up to Uncle Hendrick, even though he doubts they can win the bet. I tell him to dust off his books anyway, and I tell Kit that college is in her future, too.

Back at the house, Kit and Charlie rush to tell their parents about Charlie’s new driving job, Buddy trailing after them. I hang back on the porch to give the family its moment, enjoying the breeze while I listen to them laughing inside. Suddenly I miss Mom. I know Buddy will be fine here with the Kittredges, but I realize it’s time for me to go home. I find a scrap of paper and a pencil by the door, scribble a goodbye note thanking Kit and her family, and pick up the camera.