ONCE UPON A PAIGE

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Close to the wind

​In Close to the Wind, Addie, an eleven-year-old sailor, learns to steer her own course through the racial storms of the 1960s and, with the help of her African-American friends and mentors, helps to create positive change. The title is a sailing term for a tack that calls for a taut sail, requiring the sailor to play at the risky edge of a capsize. Metaphorically, it suggests taking action in the winds of change.

The author, aged 12.

Sample:

Chapter 15
 
“I don’t know what that man was thinking!” Emma Mason said as she paced the dining room.  Rain lashed the porch; there was no watching from there.  It was what Nester called a wrath-of-God thunderstorm, with the great trees swaying and lightning stabbing in jagged flashes from heaven to earth, followed instantly by an earsplitting crash and growl of thunder.
 
“He’s okay, Mom.  I’m sure he’s pulled up to somebody’s dock and is just riding it out under cover,” said Addie.  She sure as heck hoped so.  Her conscience was twingeing over coming up with a plan that sent her dad and two friends out into the teeth of the storm. 
 
“Fingers crossed for that,” her mom replied.  “But I fail to see the sense in going sailing when he could see there was a storm coming up, leaving us to worry so!”
 
“He wouldn’t want you to worry, Mom.  But we both needed a sail.  We won’t have another one for a while,” Addie said.
 
“Thank you very much, Emma Addison Mason,” her mom said stiffly.  “I don’t need you to interpret my husband to me.”
 
Addie turned away rolling her eyes, and sat back down to her game of solitaire checkers.  Well, it might as well be solitaire:  Davey kept jumping up, saying, “You can move for me if you want to,” and going to the window to study the rain-beaten cove.  He was at the window now.  
 
“There’s a boat coming in to the dock!” he reported excitedly.
 
The three of them would have made a great comic short movie with sped-up action, flying to the window, off to get raingear, out the porch door and down to the dock.  By the time they got there, Luke had dropped Gavin on the dock with the Pixie’s painter in hand, and was backing his big boat away.  He and Cora, in green fisherman raincoats and coveralls, both raised a hand in parting, and rain-soaked Gavin did likewise.  Then the family caught up with Gavin, and he was lucky he wasn’t knocked off the dock with their four-way hug.
 
“Boy, are we glad to see you!”
 
“Are you cold?”  “Not too bad, I was in the cabin most of the time --”
 
“Was that a Negro man brought you in?” Emma asked.
 
“Yes, it was, and I’ll tell the whole story once I get dried off and on the outside of a hot drink!”  Gavin laughed as he tied up the Pixie.  He gave his wife a kiss.
 
Gavin got a shower and his hot toddy and then built a fire in the fireplace while Emma put supper together, so it was most of an hour later that they pulled chairs up to the fire, each with a bowl of split pea soup and cornbread, to hear about Dad’s adventure.
 
“Well, it’s true, I should have taken a clue from those big clouds boiling up, but I really wanted a quick sendoff sail.  The wind was so brisk before the storm that I thought I could just dash out to the point and back before things really got going.  Next thing I knew, I was leaping waves and not able to tack too well, just hold on and not get swamped!  It was exhilarating, but a little crazy with the lightning coming on …
 
“At some point, a fishing boat came up alongside me on the windward side, to break the wind a bit.  It was a Negro man, turns out his name was Luke, and his sister Cora.  “This is some rough weather for that little boat,” he said.  “Yeah, I didn’t plan this one too well,” I said.  Luke said, “Let’s get you aboard, and we can take you back to where you’re going.”  I told him I was much obliged, and they helped me aboard and got the Pixie in tow.
 
“So there we were all cozy in the cabin with the storm all around.  Got to talking about who we all were, and I learned their side of Addie’s visit to Miz Letty.”
 
“Oh, for goodness sake!” Emma said.
 
“They had very nice things to say about our Addie,” and her dad winked at her.  “And then Luke and I reminisced about the Navy – both of us in the same place at the same time, but managed to miss each other.  Then I talked about this new assignment coming up.  And then it was Cora’s turn.
 
“Cora is working on a fair housing project …”
 
“Oh, for goodness sake!” Emma said again.
 
“…and she just happened to have a pledge with her.  I believe she carries them wherever she goes.  Here it is: …” and he read aloud the simple paragraph that Addie had read in Letty’s kitchen earlier that day.
 
“Kinda makes sense,” Davy said.
 
“Davy, you don’t know a thing about it,” Emma snapped.  “Gavin, even if I thought it were the best thing in the world to bring a Negro family into our neighborhood, it doesn’t seem right to me that we drop that bomb and then aren’t around to help pick up the pieces.”
 
Gavin took a sip of his toddy and stared at the fire.  “I do hear you, Emmalou,” he said.  “The very best way we could help with integrating our neighborhood would be if our next door neighbor would sell to a Negro family and we could be there to help them settle in.”  He sighed.  “But we don’t get to pick and choose the piece of this work we get to do.  We’re selling a house, and if it helps just a little bit to even things up in our world by selling to a Negro family, then I believe we ought to do that.”
 
“Addie, you can just quit your grinning and gather up the dishes,” Emma said curtly.  “There are some cookies in the cupboard for dessert.  Davy, you go ahead and dump the compost.”

When the kids came back from their tasks, their parents were sharing the big armchair, and Dad was saying, “Fact is, I owe them a big favor.  I wasn’t in just a small amount of trouble out there.  They did me a kindness, and I’d like to pass that kindness along.”
 
“I do appreciate that, Gavin,” their mom replied.  “The Boggs have always been good people.  When it comes right down to it, it’s your call.  I know things are changing, and I guess I’ll learn how to come around to it.  It just all seems awful fast.”
 
Addie got through cookies and cleanup while hiding her triumphant face as best she could from her mom, but when she got into bed she was tight with excitement.  “I helped!  I made the right thing happen!” she thought, over and over.  Restless, she watched as stars begin to wink through the clearing clouds and the moon rose.  “A ghostly galleon,” she thought, a phrase from one of her favorite poems.  At last the moonlit clouds reminded her of rays flying over sun-dappled sand in shallow water, and she followed them into sleep.