The Lilac Tunnel: My Journey with Samantha

I tell Samantha that hiking sounds fun. Samantha’s face lights up and she says that sounds great. We can have a picnic. And Mrs. Hawkins can help us pack a lunch. She changes her clothes, links arms with me, and leads me to the main house.

After breakfast, Mrs. Hawkins prepares a pack basket for us with sandwiches and fruit. She helps Samantha slide the straps of the basket over her shoulders to wear like a backpack. And a few minutes later, we’re bobbing up the trail, the sweet smell of freshly baked cookies wafting from inside.

We walk up the steep, winding path, Samantha pausing now and then to pluck a wildflower from beside the trail to hand it to me. She says we can make a bouquet for Grandmary. And pick out interesting rocks for Uncle Gard. She picks one up and it looks like shimmering, white quartz, but Samantha calls it a moonstone. I look at Samantha, and her cheeks are flushed, and she’s breathing hard from the hike. But she looks happy.

Samantha says Piney Point is her most favorite place because all of her favorite people are together. Uncle Gard, Grandmary, the Admiral, and now Miss Cornelia. But most of all, it’s wonderful to have a friend here with her. Exploring is a lot more fun with me. Samantha hands me the moonstone and tells me to keep it. That way, I’ll always remember Piney Point.

I thank Samantha and tuck the rock into the pocket of my pinafore. Before long, I’m carrying quite a few rocks and a full bouquet of flowers. Samantha spreads our lunch out on a large, flat boulder, and we sit down to take in the view. I’m biting into one of the sugar cookies Mrs. Hawkins baked when I hear voices coming up the trail below us. I can tell by the deep rumbling voice that one of them is the Admiral. The other is Grandmary. They’re talking very intently and don’t notice us to the side of the trail.

Grandmary is saying that it’s a difficult decision. Ever since her parents passed, Samantha has been accustomed to living in the big rambling house in Mount Bedford. The Admiral responds that change can be good. Grandmary says that traveling so far and living in a new place is a significant change. Then, the two of them disappear around a bend in the trail, their voices dissolving into unrecognizable murmurs.

Samantha turns to me, her face ashy. She says they want to send her away. They want her to live somewhere else. Samantha can’t get down the hillside fast enough, as if she’s running away from her future. I race along beside her, the wildflowers in my hands, falling one by one, leaving a scattered trail behind us.

We spend the afternoon in Wood Tick Inn, with Samantha pacing the floor. She doesn’t know where they would ever send her. She has to find out more. I suggest she just ask Grandmary. Samantha looks horrified and says that she can’t. Grandmary would know she was eavesdropping, and that’s not proper. I sigh, wishing I knew how to help Samantha. I sort of understand what she’s going through. When I found out I was spending the summer with my dad, I was scared and angry, too. But at least I knew where I was going and I could talk to my mom about it. Poor Samantha can’t even ask questions because it wouldn’t be “proper.”

That night, Samantha barely touches her food at dinner. Grandmary sends us to bed early because she’s worried that Samantha is getting sick. I want to tell Grandmary that Samantha’s heartsick, but I don’t say anything.

That night, neither of us feel like sleeping. Through the open windows, we hear the sounds of Uncle Gard’s harmonica and the Admiral’s laughter drifting up from the porch. Suddenly, Samantha stands up and says we should go there. They won’t see us in the dark, and she has to find out what’s going on. She hurries to get out a pocket torch from the drawer of her nightstand.

The pocket torch just looks like a flashlight to me, and it must have weak batteries. As we step off the porch, the light goes out. So Samantha has to push a button to turn it back on. Once we get on the path, the light goes out again, and Samantha flashes it back on. I shiver in the night and hurry to catch up with her, not wanting to be left in the dark. We trod slowly since her pocket torch doesn’t do a good job of lighting the path ahead. But Samantha seems confident about where she’s going.

When we see the glow of the porch light across the next bend, Samantha turns off the pocket torch and holds her finger to her lips. We tiptoe along the path until the porch is in view. Through the branches, I see Uncle Gard sitting on the porch step, polishing his harmonica with a cloth. Grandmary and Cornelia are sitting in rocking chairs beneath the glow of the gas lamp, listening to the Admiral who’s saying something about modern inventions.

The Admiral talks about the Wright brothers and their flying machine. Grandmary says she enjoys the train ride from the city. And she doesn’t feel the need to talk about the newfangled flying machines anymore. That’s one change we can all do without. Gard lowers his harmonica and says that she shouldn’t be so afraid of change. If nothing changed, there would be no butterflies. The Admiral chuckles, and Grandmary waves her hand at Gard dismissively. Then she turns to Cornelia and asks for more information about the boarding school. It sounds like it was a lovely experience for young girls.

Cornelia nods and says it can be because girls can become accustomed to living somewhere new. That’s always an adjustment. Samantha sucks in her breath and says that they’re sending her to boarding school. She muffles a sob and then pushes away from the bush to run down the path. I call after her loudly. And then, I whirl around and follow Samantha along the dark, wooded path. I can feel my heart in my chest, and branches crashing all around. I run faster and faster, until something catches my ankles, and I lunge forward to the ground. I land with a thud, sprawled out with my hands in front of me. Then something grabs my shoulder, and I let out a scream.

But when I look up, it’s Uncle Gard, crouching beside me with an anxious look. He asks me why I’m running. Where is Samantha? I can’t speak at first. Uncle Gard helps me stand up and find a seat on the log I tripped over, and I catch my breath. Samantha steps out of the shadows and says that she’s right here. Samantha rushes into her uncle’s arms and starts to cry and says that they’re going to send her away.

Uncle Gard asks where she got such an idea. In between shaky breaths, Samantha tells Uncle Gard that we heard Grandmary and the Admiral on the hillside this morning and then tonight by the porch. He smiles and says that Cornelia’s sisters, Agnes and Agatha, might be going to boarding school. And he believes that what we heard on the hill was a proposal of marriage. The Admiral asked Grandmary to marry him and move, with Samantha, to England. Nobody knows if she’ll say yes, but one thing is for certain: Grandmary would never send Samantha away.

I let out a sigh of relief. Grandmary is worried about Samantha adjusting to life with her in England, not alone at a boarding school. Uncle Gard continues that if Grandmary ever did send Samantha away, he would have to pack his satchel and go along with her, just like this. Then, he reaches down and lifts Samantha into his arms and pretends to march a few steps back toward the house. Samantha starts to giggle through her tears, and I know she’s going to be okay.

Uncle Gard walks us back to Wood Tick Inn. He pulls our mattresses to the porch so we can sleep beneath the stars and he gives Samantha another hug, winks at me, and skips down the porch steps to the wooden path, whistling as he goes. I ask Samantha if she feels better. She nods and says she does. Boarding school sounds awfully dreadful, but a trip to England does sound exciting. I ask her if she thinks her grandmother will say yes to the Admiral. Samantha tilts her head thoughtfully and said she overheard Mrs. Hawkins tell Elsa in the kitchen that the Admiral proposes to the Grandmary every summer.

I chuckle. I ask Samantha how she would feel if Grandmary did marry him. Samantha smiles and lifts her face toward the stars and says it might be nice to have a step-grandfather. She seems so sure. I wish I felt the same way about my stepmom as Samantha does about the Admiral, but I don’t. I still want things to be the way they used to be, when Mom and Dad were together. Samantha studies my expression and asks me what’s wrong.