Dust swirled as I watched the cars flying down the street. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. They came and left before I even had a chance to catch a glimpse of the people inside them. Whoosh. The machines were no more than blurs of color to me, faceless beings that had no business coming to the world I lived in. I wondered where they were going. Were they going to see those tall gray buildings I sometimes saw in the magazines sitting on the front rack in the local shop? Or would they travel along the ocean, and see the golden sand and beautiful blue waves I always stared at longingly on the television?
     I often sat here and watched the highway, imagining stories for each of the vehicles I saw. Maybe someday one of them would stop and tell me all about their adventures. Maybe then, I would finally be able to see one of the faces that sat in the endless line of cars.

August 29th
School was closed, again (even though it had barely just started two weeks ago). I should’ve expected it, with all the talk recently about our teachers getting no pay. For some reason, though, I was still disappointed. My fourth grade teacher this year had been pretty nice, and I wanted to hear about the elephant book she had promised to read us next week. On the day before school ended, the other kids noticed my gloom and laughed, calling me a “try-hard.”

September 7th
With nothing better to do, I was back near the highway, listening to the sound of rubber hitting gravel and churning machinery. Back at home, my mother was lying in bed, incoherently muttering something along the lines of the sky appearing green. I stared at a line of ants crawling up the side of a building next to me and frowned. Even the ants had a destination they were headed to. Why was I the only one stuck in place?

September 21st
Today, a car stopped. I stared in astonishment as I saw, for the first time in my life, a fancy-looking vehicle pull out of the stream of cars and drive onto the side street heading in the direction of my house. What was going on? Who could it be? Not wanting to miss the sight, I followed behind the car cautiously. At the edge of town (an odd destination, I thought, as no one except for a reclusive old granny lived here), the vehicle stopped, and a young woman stepped out.
     I could tell she was from the city at first glance. It wasn’t that her clothes were very different than any of ours, nor her bag, nor her hair (in fact, I thought afterwards that she looked surprisingly dull for someone from the Outside)—she simply had an air of experience and sensibleness hanging around her, one that I concluded could only exist if she had met all different kinds of people and had traveled to all different types of places. I froze as she looked around and spotted me, giving me a slight smile before turning and heading in the opposite direction.
     I must’ve stood there in shock for longer than I realized, because by the time I regained awareness of my surroundings the car had driven away and the woman was knocking on the front door of the old granny’s house. The door opened slightly and the woman slipped inside before I had a chance to process whatever I had just witnessed.

September 22nd
I hung around the old granny’s house all day in hopes that I would see the city woman again. The woman fascinated me. I wanted to talk to her and listen to her stories of places outside. What was the city like? Why had she come here? I was busy tracing figures in mud on the street when I heard a voice.
     “Hi, there.”
     I looked up and saw the city woman. I jumped up but stayed silent, unsure what to say.
     “You were here yesterday, weren’t you? I saw you.”
     I nodded.
     “Well… I’m Ms. Nadine,” she continued when I didn’t speak. “I’m a teacher.”
     A teacher? This piqued my interest. Why would a teacher come here? Hadn’t she heard that our school was closed already? I glanced at her, worried. “There’s… no school here,” I spoke for the first time. “Sorry.”
     She seemed strangely happy to hear this devastating news. “That’s why I’m here!” she exclaimed, grinning widely. I stared at her.
     She explained that the reclusive granny (whose name was actually Sophie) was her godmother. As part of some sort of program, Ms. Nadine had volunteered to come here to teach children—that way, she could also take care of Sophie, who apparently was very ill. Education would solve the world’s problems, she boasted. Every child should have a school to attend. Her ideas were enthralling, but I internally doubted them. I enjoyed school, sure, but it was incomprehensible to me how attending school could solve any problem at all.
     “Can you just tell me more about the city instead?” I interrupted when she was deep into explaining her plan to set up a temporary school in the town by herself. She looked at me with twinkling eyes. “Bring some friends here at this time in two days. I’ll tell you then,” she responded.

September 24th
Having gathered some neighborhood kids who were delighted by the idea of seeing a person from the city for the first time, I trudged over to Sophie’s house. Ms. Nadine was already sitting outside, waiting for us. “Welcome!” she beamed. “Are you ready to learn some math?”
     “Tell us about the city!” one of the kids behind me, Nathan, piped up. “Yeah, the city!” the others agreed. “Why should we learn math?”
     Ms. Nadine leaned forward with a solemn expression. “You know what?” she spoke slowly. “If you kids come here and listen to me teach every day, I’ll not only tell you about the city, but I’ll take you there!”
     This caught everyone’s attention. Less than ten minutes later, we were all sitting in a circle in the middle of Sophie’s yard, listening to Ms. Nadine explain multi-digit multiplication. I wondered how long she would be able to hold the interest of everyone, particularly after she attempted to introduce fractions to us and about half of the circle stood up complaining. Still, the other children and I agreed to come back the next day, if only for the prospect of visiting the city ourselves sometime in the future.

September 27th
I quickly discovered that Ms. Nadine’s “classes” were less dreary than I had expected—quite the opposite of it, really. As she went through her “curriculum,” she often made remarks which led to anecdotes about her past experiences. Rather than being forced to sit in a classroom, it felt as if we were on an adventure together with her. We read stories she wrote about her travels, created our own stories about sights we dreamed of, and calculated the amount of time it would take for us to reach the city. It was fun; I was happy.

October 10th
It had been just over two weeks since Ms. Nadine arrived, but it felt like we had known her for forever. Children from the neighborhood—even a few I had never seen before—wandered to Sophie’s house at all hours of the day to listen to Ms. Nadine talk. I, especially, loved her lessons. From the moment I awoke in the morning until the time the sky grew dark at night, I was in Sophie’s yard, listening. The promise of going to the city, though still in my mind, had stopped being my primary motive for attending long ago. Now, I listened simply because I wanted to.

December 9th
Earlier today, Ms. Nadine showed us how to make our own volcano using baking soda and vinegar. It was the first science experiment I had ever seen, and I took a great liking to it. Later in the afternoon, I asked her if science was always this interesting. She winked at me and said, “Why don’t we find out?”
     When the number of children in her yard dwindled, she beckoned for me to follow her into Sophie’s home. I walked into the house curiously, realizing that I had never actually seen Sophie over these past few months. The interior of the house was dark and, surprisingly, filled with books. There were shelves upon shelves of books stacked along the walls, against doors… I couldn’t imagine how a sick elderly person could live in a place like this. Ms. Nadine pulled a few books from a stack on top of what seemed to be the kitchen counter. “Read these, and tell me what you think.”
     When I opened the books, I discovered them to be full of introductory science facts and experiment ideas. There was information about dinosaurs, building my own airplane, starting a fire with a magnifying glass… it all was fascinating. I buried myself in these books, relishing my newfound interest. For the first time, I felt as if I had a purpose in life—something other than sitting by the highway watching cars.

February 18th
Over the past few weeks, my interest in science had only grown. Ms. Nadine handed me book after book after book (“you’ll grow up to be a little scientist!” she said to me) and I went through each one with increasing speed. One day I would dig up different soil samples to compare them, and the next day I would construct a kite from scratch. The more I became engrossed in learning, the faster the days seemed to fly by. Before I knew it, I had known Ms. Nadine for over half a year.

March 26th
I noticed a strange phenomenon occurring throughout the town. A real community was forming, something that had never existed here before. Children who had never interacted were coming together, playing and joking with each other. What was once a empty, desolate place now had life slowly emerging from its every crevice. Sometimes I walked back to my sitting-place next to the highway to remind myself of the days before Ms. Nadine and her teaching. Education had been the catalyst for change in this town. I recalled what Ms. Nadine had said to me during our first conversation—education could solve the world’s problems. I was starting to believe her.

September 21st
The days of happy learning continued until it had been exactly one year since Ms. Nadine arrived in this town. Now, it was time for her to leave. Keeping to her promise, we would travel along with her to the city, and someone would drive us back after a few days. Sophie’s house was surrounded by laughter and chatter as a bus from the city arrived to pick us up. I boarded the bus, hopeful for the future.
     Inside Sophie’s house, unbeknownst to me, a hunched figure smiled warmly as she watched us leave.

* * *

When we arrived back, Sophie's house was seemingly deserted. However, we found that enough money had been raised for our regular school to start back up. Motivated by newfound curiosity, I grew up to be the first in my family to attend college, and eventually became a successful scientist. Though I never found out what became of Ms. Nadine and Sophie, I will forever be grateful to the two of them for bringing education to me and my home.

* * *

Twenty years later
Sitting in the car traveling down towards my childhood residence, I was reminded of the first time I had seen Ms. Nadine. I mused on how drastically things had changed since then. Now, cars arriving from the highway were no longer a rare sight, and the town was no longer a scattered collection of broken homes and dusty roads. I had also changed. The small grimy girl with few hopes for the future was a thing of the past; I had now become like Ms. Nadine, searching through the world for young minds to teach.
     Bustling life surrounded us on all ends as we passed through the streets of my hometown. I noticed the school—my old school—out of the corner of my eye. “Stop for a moment, please,” I requested. I stepped out of the car and paused at the school’s entrance. Seeing the well-kept building and listening to the sounds of the teachers’ voices and students laughing were enough to satisfy me. I studied a poster on the door in front of me. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. I smiled. It was true. My story was proof.
     I returned to the vehicle. “Thank you. Let’s go.”