Freewriting

"We can write about anything, right?" asked a student the other day when I introduced the new daily free-writing assignment.

"Anything," I assured her.

"Then I'm going to write about that!" she pointed out the window and up. "What is it anyway?"

I looked at the skeleton of the elementary school being built in our former parking lot. "The school?" I tried. She shook her head. "Those big wooden beams wrapped in plastic?"

"No! Those white things in the sky! There were only 2 before, but now there are six."

I looked up, way up. Six bright white contrails scored the brilliant blue sky. "Do you really not know what those are?" I asked with wonder. 

I could tell by her face that she did not. 

"They're airplanes," I explained. "It's so cold that their exhaust freezes and leaves a thin cloud behind them."

"But I see them in summer, too," she replied.

"They are miles above us!" I said. "It's always cold up there."

She was silent. We looked at the sky together. I was thinking of all the hundreds of people aboard those flights, wondering where they were going and why. I don't know what she was thinking, but I hope she wrote about it.