Chances and Changes: My Journey with Molly

I can’t leave with Molly or Linda thinking that I’m a thief. I’ll have to stay and figure out another way to keep them from touching the pin. Slowly, I pull the pin out of my pocket and hold it up to show Linda. She reaches for it but before she can touch it, Molly bursts into the tent and yells that she found her pin.

Molly says the pin was in Lost and Found. She’s so relieved and happy that she impulsively hugs both Linda and me. I quickly stick my pin back in my pocket. Linda looks at me and says she’s sorry for what she said. I smile in forgiveness and say nothing.

But Molly thinks Linda is apologizing for being mad at us. Molly apologizes to Linda back and says that she was right. Molly was bossy. And she should have thought more about Linda when she was making friends with me. She just got all carried away because she was so wrapped up in learning how to swim underwater.

Linda grins and says it’s always good to learn new things. Especially when you have a good teacher. Molly says that we won’t exclude Linda anymore.

I grin. I tell them that it’s like the old rhyme about making new friends. Make new friends, keep the old. One is silver, and the other’s gold.

Molly smiles and asks Linda if, after dinner, maybe she and Bobbie would like to come swimming with us. Molly says she’s not afraid to put her head underwater anymore, so she’s made a lot of progress in diving lessons with me. And she’s decided to go on the fishing trip with her dad. Now, she hopes that she does catch the first fish. She wants to show Dad that she’s not afraid to dive off the boat. She says it’d be great if Linda and Bobbie can start giving her diving pointers tonight, too.

Linda says that would be great. So that’s what the four of us do. Every time Molly and I dive off the dock, Linda and Bobbie cheer, which is so nice of them because we dive about twenty million times.