Caroline's Adventure

Start of my new story. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment.

Chapter 1

"Just keep walking. Just keep on walking." I muttered to myself.
My family was driving on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere on our way to our grandparents. Our van was quite old and broke down. I was supposed to watch over my six younger siblings while Dad tried to fix the car. I knew there wasn't much for my four little brothers and two sisters to get into, so I decided to go exploring. Not that there was much to explore. My "exploring" --as you could call it-- was more of just a walk.
Anyway, I'd wandered quite a distance from my family when it started to sprinkle. At first I wasn't bothered by the light rain and kept on walking. The light rain soon turned into a pouring rain, so I turned around and headed back in the direction of the van.
After about an hour or two, I realised I was lost when I came across another fork in the road. I'd come to several branches, but certainly no more than nine. I had no idea which way I should go. I could almost be back to the van and my family.
italics I probably just miscounted the turns I took, I mean, all these roads look the same: muddy. italics I thought.
On and on I walked, if even possible, the pouring rain seemed to become colder and pound even harder. The think heavy rain made it harder and harder to see. I wanted to stop, but I knew I shouldn't. I needed to find shelter and a way to contact my family. At the thought of my family, I wondered how long it took for anyone to notice I was gone, or if they had yet realised I was missing. The second was not very likely, but you never know with my family.
italics Sometimes I'm just an invisible wall. No one ever pays attention to me. My purpose is just to take care of the little ones and to keep them out of trouble. I wonder what would happen if I wasn't the oldest of seven children. If I were the youngest or maybe even if I were an only child. Or if mom were here but... "Stop it Caroline, please, just stop!" Mother had said firmly but gently to me. "One day you're going to get stuck in the land of What If. It's a dangerous place, Caroline, you can easily get lost in it. Once you get lost there, you might never escape. My dear, you can wish something had happened, but it won't change anything. You can't change the past."
I remembered those words so clearly, just as it she were still-- italics
Just then something crashed into me from behind, interrupting my thoughts and knocking me into the muddy puddles in the road.