Class — the eight words I hid in the worksheet are the eight things from the bluff walk on Friday I most wanted you to carry home in your heads. Here is what I remembered about each one when I was writing the puzzle Monday night.
AUTUMN —I wanted you to remember that the leaves had already turned by the time we walked the trail Friday and that the cold came up out of the ground through your shoes. The whole bluff smelled like cold leaves and woodsmoke and that smell will not be back for another year.
MAPLE —Mr. Adler stopped us under the big sugar maple near the overlook and told you it was over ninety years old. Three of you put your palms flat against the bark and stood there a long time and did not say anything. That tree was here before my mother was born.
RIVER —The Mississippi has been moving past Davenport since long before our grandparents and will be moving past Davenport long after our grandchildren. I wanted you to feel that for one minute on Friday and I believe some of you did. It is the most important fact I can teach you and the hardest one to teach.
KESTREL —Daniel and Marcus saw it dive and did not say anything about it, but I watched their faces. I will remember those two faces longer than they will remember the bird.
COTTONWOOD —The one at the bottom of the trail is the oldest tree in the park. The bark on its south side is split, and Annabelle fit her whole hand inside the split and laughed, and I want to remember that laugh.
SANDBAR —Brown water rolling, three children standing still where the slow shape rises out of a river that has been moving past us for ten thousand years. Patricia, Howard, and Lee had never seen a sandbar before Friday. They stood at the trail's end for a long minute trying to understand what it was, and I let them.
MILKWEED —Sherrilyn Boudreau opened one pod and the seeds went everywhere at once, and three of you ran after them, and the rest of us stood and watched the seeds go. I believe that was the best minute of the whole walk. I will not forget it.
GEESE —One V passed directly over us, and the older boys went quiet, and Patricia counted twenty-nine birds. The rest of us did not count. We just watched. The class was as still then as I have ever seen a fourth grade.
you found the one I left for myself. I never told the class about it. I did not want the puzzle to be about me. — Mrs. P.