Great Family

Routes To Roots

We found a creek closer to lunch and stopped to wash up and rest. William and I went to wash our clothes, but ended up falling in. After we cleaned and rested, we started walking again. Mary said she thought there was a town near here and William gave her a map and Helen handed her a compass. “Yep, this way!” We followed Mary for about twentyish minutes into town. We found a soup kitchen and sold the rest of our deer meat for a dollar and thirty cents. We bought a few apples, blankets, and a bag. We walked back out of the town and Helen led us through the night to the mountainside. She turned around in a circle, stopped and took a breath, dropped all her stuff, and hugged me. “PERFECT!” She shouted. “I love it.” Mary agreed calmly.

She turned around to look up at William. “I suppose you and your brother want to keep walking if you're traveling to your family.” She handed him his map and pointed to one of the X’s. “If you go North West you’ll be heading in the right direction.” William looked at me intensely. I could tell, he was making his thinking face. He looked at the map, and ripped it in half. “You both are right! This place is quite nice and secluded. There's a stream right over there, and….um….. Look!” He pointed excitedly at a berry bush. “And if we go hunting again and sell more meat, we might be able to afford seeds and we can start a good garden! We could build a cabin right here, and we have as far as the eye can see to ourselves. We could build a fence and maybe get a dog!” He was running around and pointing at things like a mad man. He looked insane, but his enthusiasm was clear.

“Well, you are the older brother.” I smirked and he jumped for joy. We all laughed and then got right to work planning and gathering wood and materials. It took us a week to get everything and start on the cabin. A few months went by and we were pretty much done with the outside of the small cabin. The girls made things like beds and sheets and my brother and I made fence stakes all around the house. Everything took about seven months to finish, and by no means was it perfect, but it was perfect to us. Since then we’ve written to Mother and Father many times. We told them everything we’ve done and how we were now. We got a reply within a month and a half. I guess it's hard to send a letter to a town halfway across the country. Apparently, our new President was Franklin D. Roosevelt and he was making everything better with his plans for the nation. Father found a job and got his mother to a doctor as soon as they could but she passed away a week later. He said she got to see the start of something great and will be watching all of us thrive. He is excited to start earning money again and will save up to travel to see us again and meet Helen and Mary. He doesn’t have a set house anymore, but he is excited to see the rest of the world.

It has been just about 4 years since we left home the night of William’s 17th birthday. William is 21, I am 20, Helen is 19, and Mary is 20. Right now we are all just friends, but Helen and I joke and tease Mary and William. And we did end up getting a dog, Helen named him Blue, and he helps us hunt. Life is recovering slowly, but we aren't rushing to change too much right now.