I don’t remember how old I was, but I remember the heat of sun, blazing down on my young skin, soaking into me, as I frantically licked a freezer pop to keep it from melting in an icky, sticky mess on my hands and arms. I’d almost reached the bottom when the yell came up the hill: The bookmobile is coming!
I already had read every one of Laura’s books I could find, and had begged for copies for my birthdays, Christmas, and any other occasion I could think of. But I still held out hope that there would be just one more book. Maybe two. Or three. But just one more?
On this day, visiting my cousins in Madison, Wis., I had just learned about the bookmobile, and how it visited the suburban neighborhoods to make it easier for kids to get their hands on new books. I ran down to the street with Nicole, Sara, and Tracy–my sister-cousins and my sister–to see what the bookmobile lady had in her truck.
There she was: “my” Laura, along with most of her books. No Plum Creek this time. But, wait: what’s this?
“On the Way Home”?
I squealed out loud. My Aunt Bonnie, who’d come down to the curb behind us, said, “Did you find something, Amy?”
“I haven’t ever, ever read this one!”
Because I didn’t live in Madison, I didn’t have a library card. Aunt Bonnie must have checked it out for me, because I was allowed to take the book into the house, immediately sitting down and cracking open the cover.
Rose spoke to me about the trip from De Smet to Missouri, about those days in the wagon, and the heat, and the dust, and the panic. She set the scene brilliantly, and then, Laura spoke to me from the pages. She had a different voice than I was used to. It seemed much more adult, much more like my mom’s or my aunts’, but it was unquestionably hers.
I read it straight through for the rest of the visit, withdrawn from the family’s play, knowing that I would have to leave the book behind when we left. But the thrill I felt then remains the thrill I feel now when I see something new, something I don’t have, something that Laura or Rose knew and loved and shared.
Can there be just one more?