�Priscilla!� There it came again. It hurt my ears. It sounded like an ill screech owl. �If you don�t come home, I�ll disown you!�
If it had been a deeper voice, I would have thought the words came out of my Uncle Odo�s mouth, but this was definitely the voice of an older woman. I was glad I couldn�t see her. It sounded like she would have looked enraged and I bet her gaze would have frozen a cave troll.
�We�re on the edge of the Shire. She couldn�t have gone beyond it.� It was a deep Hobbit�s voice that made that comment.
�Oh yes she could!� The shrill voice was back. �Gone off after that ne'er-do-well Proudfoot she has! I know it!�
�How can you know that?� A younger voice said that, a tween if I guessed correctly.
�It doesn�t take smarts, Milo. Everyone knows the Proudfoot�s gone and her leaving that note. That�s the only thing she could have done!�
�I don�t think so�� The deep voice didn�t have a chance to continue.
�I�m right! I know I am!�
I glanced at Priscilla. She was still looking up at the bridge, her face set as if in stone.
All of a sudden, I heard the most heart wrenching sound of weeping. I knew in an instant it was the shrill voice, for the loud sobs that came out were high and earsplitting. The stamping on the bridge had stopped and for a long while, nothing was heard but the wails of the shrill voice.
Looking once again at Priscilla, I saw that her eyes hadn�t moved, but they had misted. Still, no tears fell down her face. The feet were moving away, back toward the Shire and away from the bridge. The last words I heard were in the midst of the weeping, moaning, �She�s gone forever!�
We sat for a time in silence and then Priscilla finally took her eyes off the bridge and moved back towards the fading light. She said nothing to me and avoided my eyes. She simply walked back to her pack and reached in, continuing where she had left off, as if nothing had happened. Yet in the following instant she threw the pack down and looked up at the bridge defiantly.
�She doesn�t know how like her I am! I�m just as stubborn as her and I refuse to go back!�
I didn�t know what to say. I suppose I should have agreed, but instead I asked a question that would have been better left for another time.
�Why did you leave?�
Priscilla�s eyes flashed fire at me and I felt the impulse to take cover. �I�m not going to spend my whole life in the Shire, following after her dreams. �Marry wealthy, Priscilla.� �Have ten children, Priscilla.� �Don�t play with your brothers, Priscilla.� I�m sick of it. I�ve been planning to leave for months and now that the opportunity has afforded itself, I am here. At long last I have managed the courage to step out on my own and I will not go back!�
My heart sank. It wasn�t that I felt sorry for Priscilla, it was that I realized her reason for coming with me wasn�t me. She had come because she wanted to escape; I had simply been her means of doing so. We might have been journeying together, but our motivations were entirely different. I was looking for family, she was evading family. It had never occurred to me someone might seek to run away from their family and before I could stop it I asked the next question.
�Don�t you care about your family?�
Her eyes that had been flaming at me suddenly looked startled and then she recovered and said defensively, �Of course! But it is time that I stood up for myself. I�ll be better off away from them.�
I looked down. �At least you have a family to defy.� I said it softly and I thought she hadn�t heard, but the next thing I knew I heard crying. I looked up and Priscilla was furiously rubbing her face to destroy her tears.
I stammered. �I�m looking for my family, Priscilla� That�s where I�m going. I don�t know where they are, but I have to find them.�
Priscilla suddenly stopped wiping her face and her face as she turned to me wore a very confused expression. �What a predicament you put me in, Pady Proudfoot! First your words sway me back with the love of my family and now you utter words that make me pity you and more desirous of joining you. I�m torn in two! I do care for them, but I want my own life. I want to see what�s out there.� She was looking up the Brandywine. �What do I do?� Her plaintive voice was edged with frustration.
I hadn�t meant to put her in such a position and as she asked the question I knew at once I had to persuade her to stay. I was terrified at the thought of her leaving. I was already becoming used to her presence, to a companion on my journey and the thought her abandoning me caused fear to rise within me. I couldn�t let her leave.
�Come with me.� It was the most definitive thing I had said to her the entire time I had been with her. It wasn�t a request, it was a command. �Leave the Shire with me. Your family isn�t going anywhere and will be here when you return.� Would we return?
Priscilla slowly nodded. �Yes. You�re right, of course. They will be.� She nodded again, this time with a good deal of vigor. I could see her obstinate will coming back to the surface. �Yes. I am coming with you, Pady! And it�s time we were gone. We�ve wasted much of the light we have left.�
After that we walked along silently, but something had changed. Now we didn�t walk as uncomfortable strangers thrown together. We walked as comrades with a purpose. We both knew what we wanted and the only way to get it was to let go of the Shire.
So here I am on the shores of the Brandywine. We slept in the woods last night (what an uncomfortable sleep! I almost gave up the journey longing for a real bed) and are now finishing our lunch. And that island is staring at me. Girdley Island, I think it is called if I remember my Shire maps from when I studied them as a child. Something is extraordinary about it and if I didn�t know better, I would think it was calling to me. I think I might� Ah, Priscilla is back. She has mushrooms!*
*I note at this point that Pady ends this entry abruptly and food stains abound this page. I can only assume he ate the mushrooms.