The Picnic

Asia looked up at a very familiar face.

"What are you doing here, mommy?" asked Asia.

"Asia, what do you mean 'what are you doing here?' I live here, remember?" replied her mother.

Asia stared at the morning light shining through the window, lighting up the peach-blossom walls in her room. Her raggedy doll, Belinda, was lying half off the bed wearing white pajamas with pink flowers, the same as her own pajamas. She quickly sat up, keeping the pink quilted cover snuggled all around her.

"Mommy, I had a dream like you would not believe! There were children in white nightgowns who came and took me to a cave where an old lady sat on a raft and read stories from the walls and one story was about a unicorn and a dragon and a young woman who . . . "

"Asia," interrupted her mother, "I'm sorry to interrupt but we are in a bit of a hurry this morning. That is a very nice dream, now please get dressed. Breakfast is already on the table. A friend of mine is coming to take us for a very interesting walk today. He is arriving in half an hour, so hop to my pudding."

"I am not a 'pudding' and you better not forget about the you-know-what!"

"Do you mean the furry you-know-what?" Janet asked with a smile as she walked out of the room.

Asia grinned and did 'hop to'. She jumped off the bed, threw off her pajamas and put on the white blouse and pink overalls that were lying at the end of the bed. After putting on her light pink socks and pink and grey sneakers, Asia dressed Belinda in the very same outfit, except the sneakers. Then she went to her dresser mirror and combed her long wavy strawberry blond hair and wondered how she would look if her hair were pink.

"Don't forget to make your bed!" shouted her mother from the kitchen. Asia heard the steady stream of water from the kitchen faucet and the clink-clank sound of dishes being washed.

"You have to help me too, Belinda," said Asia. "After all, you slept in it as well." Asia had Belinda help make the bed all the while explaining to her doll how to make it properly.

"You're a good girl Belinda," she said. Holding her doll tight to her chest, Asia ran to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Where is the man taking us for a walk, mommy?" asked Asia as she bounced into the chair.

"Mr. Thompson is his name, and he is an archaeologist . . . "

"He must be very important to be that!" Asia remarked.

"An archaeologist is a person who studies the earth to find out the story of man through the ages," explained Janet.

"Oh, I know that story, mommy," said Asia. "It was in my dream."

"It sounds like everything was in your dream."

"The stone baby was not in my dream, though," said Asia as she chomped away at her eggs.

"We do not speak with our mouths full, do we Asia?"

"Belinda was doing it too!"

"Belinda, mind your manners!" scolded Janet.

"Now you've made her cry!" pouted Asia.

"You are getting too old for this, Asia!" said Janet, getting more cross by the minute.

There was a knock at the kitchen door.

"Saved by the knock!" sighed Janet. She opened the door, letting in a tall, dark-haired man wearing a light blue sweater and blue jeans.

"Doctor Thompson, I'd like you to meet my daughter Asia. Asia, this is doctor Thompson."

"I know, you've said his name already," replied Asia. "It is good to meet you, Doctor Thompson. Asia stood up and curtsied.

"Your daughter has very good manners," said Doctor Thompson. "Well, the two of you can call me Gene, and I am looking forward to walking around in this area with you. There are many fascinating things to discover."

Asia put her dishes in the sink and ran toward her room. "I'll be right back, Gene. I have to get my walking stick!"

 

Asia had a big backyard to play in; three very old oak trees stood in a line just a few yards from the house. A pathway of stepping stones curved from the kitchen doorsteps through the trees. It cut across a lush green lawn (that needed mowing) and stopped just at the bushes that surrounded the backyard. They lived in the country a couple miles from the nearest town. A few houses were scattered about, but mostly the land belonged to the animals, bugs, and birds.

Asia and her mother walked with Gene along the pathway. On the left side, in the far corner of the lawn lay a sand box almost hidden from sight. On the right, a swing set stood motionless, reflecting off its metal bars the rays of the morning sun. They walked out into the meadow beyond the yard. A rabbit hopped into the underbrush nearby. A brown squirrel scurried up a birch tree annoyed at the intruders. A little yellow butterfly fluttered over fields mottled with queen-annes-lace, thistles, nettles, mint and sage plants, yellow snapdragons, wild geraniums, fleabane and black-eyed susan. Groves of trees spotted the landscape, lined along the meandering streams that flowed lazily down from the hills. Gene spoke to Asia as they walked.

"So, what do you do for a living young lady?"

"I play," said Asia. "Sometimes I hammer things."

"Oh, that is very interesting," he said. "Do you ever dig and find things?"

"Sure," replied Asia. "All the time. Why, just the other day my friend Brandy and I were digging by the sand box and we found a coin."

"Really?" asked Gene.

"Yes, really, and it is very, very, very old. I keep it for good luck in a special place."

"I like to dig too," said Gene. "Sometimes I find houses that are so old they are under the ground!"

Asia laughed.

"It's true. Sometimes I even find arrowheads. Would you like to see one?"

"Sure! I'd be delighted to see an arrowhead," said Asia.

Gene stopped and pulled out from his knapsack pocket a stone that was almost flat, rough along the edges and ending in a point. He handed it to Asia.

"Wow, this is a real arrowhead all right!" exclaimed Asia. "It's sharp!"

Asia lifted up Belinda and opened a zipper in its back. She pulled out a coin from the pocket and handed it to Gene.

"I've never seen a coin like this before!" Gene remarked.

"I've never seen an arrowhead like this, either," said Asia.

The coin had a picture of a ship on one side and a key on the other. Gene wondered if it was something sold at children stores because he had never seen that type of coin before. He wanted to borrow it to study; to find out it's origin, but since it was Asia's lucky coin, he gave it back and gave the arrowhead to her as well.

"You know," said Gene, "this whole country did not always look like this. There used to be an ocean nearby, and in this area, a lake. I would guess that this was a large island with deep forests and . . . "

"A great big mountain in the middle!" interrupted Asia.

"Why yes, how did you know I would say that?"

"I think it has something to do with a remarkable dream Asia had last night," said Janet. "Right, Asia?"

"Right! Asia exclaimed. "It is the land where the Great Mother came and gave her stars away."

"That is a very special dream,  Asia," remarked Gene. Gene looked back down the hill toward where they had come and studied the house where Janet and Asia lived. It stood right against a hill so that the backyard was also the front yard, since the real backyard was the hill itself.

"If I may ask," began Gene, "why is your house built against a hill?"

"My husband's father was an eccentric old gold miner," replied Janet. "He did not want anyone to get to the mine he had dug, so he built his home right up against the cave entrance. My husband was thinking of building another home further away from the hill, but that is unlikely now since he died of an illness a couple years ago."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Gene.

"Oh, that is all right," said Janet. "Asia and I are doing very well for ourselves. I'll just have to wait till Asia grows up and becomes a carpenter. Then she can build that house for us."

"No way!" shouted Asia. I'll get some money from a job and hire some carpenters to do the work for me.

"That is a good plan," said Gene. "Would you happen to have pictures of the goldminer and his wife? I love to look at pictures of old timers."

"Just pictures of Asia's grandfather," said Janet. "Nobody knew his wife and the old man never spoke about her."

"What an unusual story," said Gene.

Asia liked Gene Thompson. After her father died, her mother had very few boyfriends. Asia thought most of them were 'stuffy', because they did not really talk to her. They were just polite. But Gene talked to her and thought she had interesting things to say. She wanted to ask if her mother would date Gene, but the last time she asked that, though, her mother gave her a look that sent shivers up and down her spine.

Gene put his hand on Asia's shoulder. "You know, Janet," he said, "I think Asia would make a very fine archaeologist when she grows up."

"She is a very bright girl!" said Janet proudly. "And that bright girl usually has a snack about this time. Anybody interested? I have some cheese, crackers and juice in my handbag."

Everybody agreed it would be a good time to stop and have a little picnic. "We could go over there by that outcrop of boulders?" Gene suggested.

They stopped in a shady area by the boulders. Janet pulled from her large beige-colored handbag a small checkered cloth that she unfolded on the ground. On the cloth she placed a box of crackers, a plastic container of sliced cheese, and another of sliced apples. Then she pulled out a large paper plate to spread the snack out on along with three paper napkins.

As they ate, Janet asked Gene about his travels and work as an archaeologist. The conversation did not interest Asia. She grabbed her doll and walking stick and began hiking around the boulders looking to see if there were any rocks she could climb. First, she stepped into a large cleft between two boulders and scratched at the shiny flakes in the rock. They flaked off in her hand. She decided to take them back to show Gene and placed them in Belinda's pocket. Next she climbed onto a short rock and bent down, stroking with her hand a clump of moss near to her feet. She stood up and walked further on, meaning to hike around the 'outcrop' of rocks and return on the other side where she had started. Her plan was to sneak up on Gene and her mother and . . .

There was a scream. Janet and Gene jumped up and called for Asia. They ran to where they heard the scream and stopped.

"There is a cave!" screamed Asia, pointing her fingers toward a dark area in the rocks.

"Oh Asia!" exclaimed Janet. "You scared me half to death. We thought you were hurt or fell and broke a bone or got bit by a snake. But no! You screamed because you saw a cave! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"I'm sorry, mommy."

Gene gave Janet a hug. "When I was young, I used to get so excited about finding things that I, too, would scream. My mother had many, many heart attacks taking walks with me."

Janet laughed. "Okay, enough apologies and sympathies," she said. "Go explore the mysterious cave."

Gene pulled a flashlight out of his knapsack.

"Do you always carry a flashlight in the middle of the day?" asked Asia.

"I do for this very reason." Gene replied.

Asia laughed and followed him into the cave. Gene had to kneel down to get through the entrance, but then he could stand up once he was inside.

"We better get out of here, and out of here now!" shouted Asia, remembering her dream. "This might be the cave of the dragon!"

"No need to be afraid," said Gene. "If a dragon lived here, it had to have been a long, long time ago." He aimed the flashlight all around the cave to see how large it was. When the light illumined the walls, Asia walked up close to see if there were any dwarf writings there, but only clumps of dirt fell where she touched it.

Then Gene flashed the light on the ground searching for any signs of life, recent or old.

"What are you looking for?" asked Asia.

"Sometimes you can find interesting things on the cave floor. If there were bottles, you would know somebody was here recently."

"And people should not be litterbugs!" Asia said emphatically.

"If you find arrowheads or old blankets, then perhaps some Indians once camped here."

"What is this?" asked Asia as she pointed to a strange looking rock from the cave floor. Gene put the flashlight down and picked up it up.

"I don't know. Let's take it outside for a good look," said Gene.

They walked out into a very bright sunshiny day.

"Did you find a treasure?" asked Janet.

"We will know in a minute," said Gene, brushing away at the large stone.

"This is a great, great find!" exclaimed Gene. "It is a carved stone, probably a doll that some ancient tribe of people made many years ago. It reminds me of the Buddha, but it has pointed ears."

"Who is the Buddha?" asked Asia.

"A great man who lived in a country far away from here, called India," said Janet. "They have Buddha statuettes in the museum in the city. Sometime I'll take you to see them."

Gene gave Asia the doll and said "I want you to keep this. Someday when you are older, you can go to the library to find out what people made this doll. This is for you to study since you are the one who found it."

It was getting late. Asia and her mother still had some shopping to do at the pet store, so they headed back home. Gene said goodbye and promised to return. Asia told her mother that she liked Gene, and she could tell that her mother liked him as well.

That night at bedtime, Asia walked over to her new hamster cage and watched the little creature scamper about. Her mother came in and gave her a warm hug, tucking her into the bed, saying 'goodnight, and sweet dreams'. Asia placed the stone doll on her night stand and stared at it for a while.

"You are softer than that doll, Belinda," whispered Asia to the doll cuddled by her side. Asia looked at the stone doll again and said laughingly; "That doll looks like a baby. I think I'll call it stone baby."

"Stone baby!" shouted Asia.

"Asia, go to sleep," called her mother from the other room.