Chapter 17
Carolyn (1949)
...
When she was a little girl, Carolyn always had trouble making friends with the other girls in the neighborhood. When they wanted to play with dolls and have tea parties, Carolyn was indifferent to these games. She did join in and participate but ten-year-old Carolyn preferred to climb trees and play in the dirt. She wasn't afraid of bugs and would spend her time catching daddy longlegs in jars. She would proudly show off her findings to the other girls but was always met with reactions she didn't expect.
"That is disgusting!" a girl named Margaret said. She clutched her doll close to her and backed away from Carolyn and her bug.
Young Carolyn laughed. "It's not! He's cute!"
Margaret shook her head. "Get it away!"
"He wants to join the tea party."
"Well, he's not allowed," Margaret cried. "Take it away! Take it away now!"
"Yes, please get rid of that horrid spider," another girl named Peggy said.
Carolyn held the jar up to her face and looked at her little friend. "He's not a spider, you know."
"Looks like a spider to me," Peggy replied.
"You can't bring it to the tea party," Margaret said. "Bugs are not allowed."
"Except for ladybugs and caterpillars and butterflies," Peggy added. Margaret nodded to these rules of the tea party.
"But he'll stay in the jar," Carolyn said.
"No is no," Peggy said while stomping her foot in the grass.
Carolyn frowned at the two neighbor girls and turned to walk away. She didn't want to attend a tea party where her new tiny friend was not allowed. First, the girls said she didn't have a fancy or cute enough doll to bring to the tea party and next her little opilione was banned. She didn't feel like having tea anyway so she left to go play in the field and look for other small critters.
Young Carolyn sat in the grassy field with her special jar in her hands and looked up at the sky. She watched the white clouds move slowly and the sun brought warmth to her. The sky was vast and Carolyn imagined what it would be like to fly through the clouds and taste them. She imagined them to taste like sweet cream, better than anything the neighbor girls could ever have at their miserable tea party. She looked down at her jar and her little friend sat upon a twig she had picked out for it. The daddy longleg moved onto a pinecone and looked happy. Carolyn thought he looked happy. There was a soft breeze that made Carolyn look back up at the sky. Then she heard a voice call out from behind her.
"What are you doing?" a little boy said. Carolyn turned to see who it was. She recognized him from school. His name was Douglas.
"I caught a daddy longleg," she said proudly.
"Neat!" Douglas came over and sat next to her in the grass to look at the bug in the jar.
"Margaret and Peggy hate him." Carolyn giggled.
"They're just scaredy cats. It won't hurt 'em."
"I tried to tell them! They wouldn't let him come to the tea party."
"Their tea parties are no fun anyway." Douglas laughed.
Carolyn smiled and opened the lid of the jar. She held her hand out and touched the glass rim to her palm. The daddy longleg crawled out and sat still. Carolyn imagined him dancing.
"You really ain't afraid of bugs?" Douglas held out his hand so the critter would scurry onto him.
"No," Carolyn said as the daddy long leg returned to her palm after briefly meeting Douglas. She put him down in the grass and the two children watched the bug crawl away to freedom.
"Want to go play?" Douglas stood up and held out his hand for Carolyn. She nodded and he lifted her up from the grass. She brushed off her dress which was stained green a bit. Her mother wouldn't be too happy when she returned home but Carolyn was too busy to think about keeping the dress she wore pristine.
Further out in the field, a group of boys were playing tag. Douglas brought Carolyn to join them and they enjoyed her company. They welcomed her to play and none of the boys were mean to her, something Carolyn was worried about when Douglas invited her to join in. She laughed a lot and was happy that they let her have fun with them. She ran in the grass as fast as she could when she was it. She chased Douglas and tagged him with ease. She was a much faster runner than him. When the children were done playing tag, Carolyn suggested that they could go catch frogs at the pond. The boys happily agreed and the children followed Carolyn to her favorite spot to find frogs. Fireflies began to light up as the sun was close to setting, signaling to the children that it was time to return home. Douglas said goodbye to his friends and walked Carolyn home before it got dark.
"Better than a tea party, right?" Douglas asked.
Carolyn laughed. "Much better. We caught so many frogs!"
"You're an odd girl," he said.
"I suppose I am." Carolyn smiled. "Margaret and Peggy missed out."
Douglas laughed. "I hope their dolls enjoyed their tea!"
Carolyn waved goodbye to him when she ran up the front porch steps of her house and Douglas ran home before night fell.
After that day, the two of them became close friends. Almost inseparable. Carolyn's parents were not too fond of him. They didn't like that he encouraged her to be unladylike. Her mother especially didn't like seeing Carolyn return home in ruined dresses with grass and dirt stains. Her mother didn't enjoy it when she brought home frogs and other things little girls should have no interest in. She begged her daughter to play with girls like Margaret and Peggy.
Several months later, Douglas became ill and was not allowed to leave his home. She wasn't allowed to see him, no one was. Carolyn didn't know what happened to her friend until it was too late. Douglas had passed away and she was left distraught. She wasn't able to say goodbye and she thought about it every single day, hoping that Douglas knew she wanted nothing more than to thank him for being her friend.