To Mom and Dad for sending me out in April and calling me back in September
Soapstone Signs and Whispers A Spring Arrival Lindy travels opposite to the geese Every spring after the ice breaks up on the river he walks in from the north along the tracks Even though his name is Lindbergh everyone calls him Lindy Even me He has a way of being polite without saying anything He smells like campfires and the outdoors Lindy carries a big burlap sack of soapstone pieces Folks ask where he’s found all that soapstone He just laughs and tells them Somewhere between here and there Our place is one of the stops on his yearly journey to the south We operate the lodge between the river and the train tracks Lindy trades his carving 1
in return for a place to sleep and food to eat Each year Mom puts the one he carves for us in the glass display case Our guests sometimes ask to buy them but Mom always says Not these ones they are special to us When someone asks Whatcha working on Lindy smiles and says Work in progress He leaves his finished carvings on the ground beside him and the tourists can look and touch and buy those ones if they want He carves bears loons owls ospreys beavers walrus seals and even fish Lindy has a place he likes to sit by the riverbank I like to sit with him and watch him carve Sometimes he hands me what he is working on I look and then hand it back without saying a word Really that is saying a lot Today when Lindy finishes a carving I become curious How do you know what you will carve next 2
