Walking from school

Lev never wanted to take the bus to school. It was almost a mission. In Costa Rica, he would often wait at the bus stop, and then take off running when he saw it coming, seeing if he could beat it to the bottom of the hill. On slow dirt roads, it was possible!

On returning to the Seattle, we lived 3 blocks from school, so he always walked. When we moved to Sedro Woolley, the school was about a half-mile away, so he would bike or walk. Even on cold or wet days, he would rarely take the bus. It was a point of pride.

On days he would walk, sometimes he would call me up and I would meet him halfway with the dog in tow. He would then take the dog and I would carry his heavy backpack. We both thought that this was a good deal. I enjoyed walking and talking with him, it was something I valued.

When he started high school, he would ride with Rebecca on her way to work. Then he would walk back along the railroad tracks. Often he would call me up, and I would walk out and meet him. These were some of the best times we spent together.

There were three ways down from the tracks. One way cut down a hill to the road, which I preferred, but Lev thought it was lame. The second way required crossing an open, narrow bridge. I am scared of heights, but Lev convinced me to use this bridge as an opportunity to get over my fear. The first time I crossed it I had major vertigo and ended up crawling, but after a few times I was doing okay. So he was right, and he was perhaps a little proud of me.

The third day off the tracks required crossing a little creek. To more easily cross it, Lev had built a little dam using whatever rocks he could find. I remember he had come home from school very late once, and it was the day he had first put the dam together. He worked on it all the time, since it was constantly falling apart. I helped with it a few times, but he was never quite satisfied, even though it was good enough to get across while staying dry. We fantasized about building a nice bridge across it. We brainstormed how we could do it without the city discovering it and tearing it out, but we never came up with a viable plan. But with Lev, the brainstorming was as fun or more fun than the actual project.