Chances and Changes: My Journey with Molly

Quickly, I sift through handfuls of pine needles and run my hands over the damp ground and gnarled tree roots. I’ve been searching for only a moment or two, but I still feel like I’m about to burst into frustrated tears. And then my hand feels a bump in a little crevice under the rock. It’s the pin! I fight back tears of relief and cry out that I’ve found it! Molly and Linda pat me on my back. My heart is still beating hard and my hands are shaky as I secure the pin to the inside of my shorts pocket. I’ll never be so careless about the pin again. I shiver to think of what would have happened if I lost it.

We finish putting on our rucksacks and set forth on the trail. We’ve only gone a few hundred feet when the trail takes a sharp turn and forks. One path leads uphill, the other downhill. Linda anxiously asks which way the group went. Molly says that we fell so far behind that we can’t see or hear them. This is terrible.

I apologize. This is my fault. If they hadn’t waited for me, then they wouldn’t have been separated from the others. Molly says that if they hadn’t waited, then I would be separated from everyone else. The three of us have to stick together. Linda wails. Which path should we follow? I hesitate. I ask which way the pond is. Molly and Linda answer at the same time, but with different answers. Molly thinks uphill, Linda downhill.

Just then, the skies open up and the rain starts to fall. Hard. Linda groans. What will we do now? Molly says we’ve been heading uphill the whole time, ever since we left camp yesterday. She speaks confidently. So we should probably go uphill. Linda comments that we were supposed to be going towards a pond. And ponds are usually downhill. Molly turns to me. I should decide.

I square my shoulders. This is no time to have an attack of Margaret Maybe. I’ve spent enough time hiking in the woods to know that we are in trouble. It’s dangerous to hike in the rain, and it’s even more dangerous to be separated from your group. We can’t waste time. We’ve got to catch up with the others as quickly as possible. And fast.