Orphan Train

by Christina Baker Kline

cloisonné

monolith

pinafores

milquetoast

morning coats,

That the Penobscot people have lived in the territory that became Maine for eleven thousand years,

She knows that she was named for Molly Molasses, a famous Penobscot Indian born the year before America declared its independence from England.

there were over thirty thousand Wabanakis living on the East Coast in 1600 and that 90 percent of them had died by 1620, almost entirely a result of contact with settlers, who brought foreign diseases and alcohol, drained resources, and fought with the tribes for control of the land. She didn’t know that Indian women had more power and authority than white women, a fact detailed in captivity stories.

His hand in mine as we walk feels like the most natural thing in the world.