Little Girl Lost

By

Lin W.

The child left to her own devices was precocious, curious, and very analytical on any given day. She could sing, dance, play football with the boys in the neighborhood and could out swim most of the kids in town. She loved to ride her bike all over her small universe to look at all that nature had to offer her imagination. She had even jumped off the train trestle to be like her brothers. There was just one minor problem…she was a girl! She could not play football at school, or dance or do any of the other things that put the light in her eyes. To make matters worse, she loved the sciences! God forbid, she loved Chemistry, Biology, Pathology, Psychology, Zoology and any medical related field at the ripe old age of ten. Math was not a problem; language arts and reading were fun. She could get lost in a book, lose track of time and block out the cruelties of the world there. The child’s mother left she and her siblings with an alcoholic father. She washed the dishes, did the laundry and learned to cook. Was there anyway out?

'Eleven Days To Zero' flashed across the small TV screen in her makeshift lab. In one hour of solitude she had found new friends and new adventures to carry her through some very difficult times ahead. “Steady as she goes” took on a whole new meaning for this lost child. Did Admiral Nelson have the answers to the questions the child had locked up inside? Why didn’t her parent listen? Why didn’t anyone listen? Promptly at 19:00 hours, Eastern Standard Time, Sunday the world would stop and she began to listen for any clue, any significant sign to her dilemmas. Admiral Nelson and his crew had an education! They were very smart indeed and one little girl began taking very meticulous notes on their activities. It became clear as the Herculite windows of a certain submarine. Her way out was her mind, education, determination and sense of duty to God, family and self. She would become what they had become…scientists! She began to look at life through Admiral Nelson’s eyes. What would he say? What would he think? How would he react to this situation? What choices would he make? He would be strong, wise, kind, giving and firm when necessary. He would speak his mind after he had thought the problem through. He learned from his mistakes and now the little girl knew, her course was plotted, her rudder adjusted and all ahead full toward adulthood the “right way” like the “Captain”. She would listen to her teachers like “Chip” and help others along the way like the “COB”. “Sail true young captain your future waits. Up periscope and look beyond this place to find your own port of call. Use your gifts to help mankind and remember who you are.”

I hear you Admiral and I did not forget. I made hard choices and I made mistakes, but I learned. I am my own person, a chemist, a teacher, a singer, a mother, and a wife and now have I had a very full life!