Keeywadin 3.5

Cottegewood. Nineteen seventy six.

Lorraine left the Deephaven School and rode her cool blue CITOH 10-speed bicycle across the bridge to Cottagewood. She “tacked” her way into the wind, up Cottagewood Avenue and by the General Store. She made a short turn and arrived at her house. It was a blustery autumn day, but the sun was warm.

When she opened the front door she found the house quiet and empty. It was Friday. Mom was off traveling again and Dad would not be home for hours. When he came home he would be frazzled and he would hurriedly rush out to sail his boat alone. He "would invite her along”, but he was going to meet some friends in Wayzata Bay.
It seemed to Lorraine that is all her Dad cared about on weekends. Sailing, his friends in the Wayzata Yacht Club....and to get away from everyone else.

She was left alone again, but today she was going to do something about it. A girlfriend’s 16 year old brother had invited them for a ride in his hot new Monte Carlo.
Why not? Who cared what she did? The more she thought about it the angrier she became. She wrote a note to her father telling to “go ahead by yourself and sail your stupid boat, I don’t care anymore, I am going out to have some fun.” Strong and confrontational stuff from an eleven year old. She placed the note on a small table by a window and weighted it down with pennies from a jar.

After making a quick phone call she grabbed a sweater and rode away briskly on her bike. She rushed away so quickly, she never saw the opened window and the gust of wind that rushed through the dining room and caught her note. The pennies were too light and were sent to the floor. The hasty note sailed like a butterfly through the air, doing a delicate dance. When landing it slipping between the cracks in the rustic floorboards never to be seen by her father...