small treasures

A Story by Deseret

something i had to do for a class. turned out pretty good. about six pages double spaced.

The birds sung all around my head, like a halo of iridescent light and sound. This was so exciting! My enthusiasm seemed to bubble up inside of me until I couldn’t take it and I burst into tangible giggles that seemed to drift upwards to join the birds about me and mix with the sweet pungency of the rotting fodder that squished beneath my feet. I was so glad to be camping.

I was so glad that we were exploring, my younger brother and I. And despite our instructions to stay within in sight of the tent I felt that we were doing important work together. After all what if no one had ever gone this way before? What if no one had ever pushed through these ferns and felt the wet on their thighs or felt the soft tickle of the moss on this tree only to pull it off and see the nasty bugs scurrying for cover.

Samuel was zig-zagging around like a confused jack rabbit moving excitedly from this spectacle to the next. He face was pale beneath his freckles and his nose was red from the chilly air. Dad had made me take him, and I did not mind being with him, but he did not understand what we were doing.

He did not understand why it was important that we go in a straight line. Why it was important that we did not miss anything. I turned away from him and pushed my brown hair out of my face.

But Sam would learn. I was pretty sure of it.

For a brief moment we were walking together and Sam happened to look back, he stopped walking and I paused a few steps latter to wait for him, what was he doing?

He pointed out that we couldn’t see the tent anymore and that we should probably go back.

I couldn’t believe that our adventure was over already. Disappointment was pulling me to the ground. That was it? Already?

“Wait, look!” I proudly pointed out that we could still see the van which was in the same clearing as the tent. So we could keep going.

Besides we were going in a straight line, we couldn’t get lost. Well I couldn’t anyways.

“Ya” Sam agreed that my reasoning was sound and that we could explore for a few more minutes. And so he began zig- zagging again and I continued in a strait line.

I was glad I did because only a few yards after that I found a beautiful treasure lying half buried in the dirt. Entranced I reached down and picked it up from under the pine needles and wiped the dirt from its tarnished red surface. Sam took a moment for him to realize that I had stopped and ran quickly to my side.

I brought the pocket knife closer so that I could examine it my hair falling around my hands like a wall, my hand ran over the body of pocket knife, I could almost taste the gritty rust on my tongue. I brought it closer.

Sam moved aside some of my hair and leaned to one side until he could see what was in my hands.

“what is it?” He asked his voice reaching higher octaves then usual.

“A knife” I told him, my own voice was quiet.

“Lemme see” He insisted after waiting as long as he could possibly manage. I hesitated my fingers wrapping around the body of the knife. I didn’t want to give it to him. It was mine.

But that wasn’t fair. My arm reached out slowly and my fingers allowed it to drop into his eager hands.

He brought it close to his face, his hazel eyes going almost cross eyed as he studied it intently. He turned it over in his hands and I held out mine for him to give it back to me. He had had it long enough. He needed to give it back.

He stalled turning around and trying to pull out the longest of the four blades with his fingertips. But it wouldn’t come out. My heart beat impatiently within me. Why wasn’t he giving it back?

I ran to the other side of him and told him to give it back, my own voice reaching towards higher Octaves.

He half smiled and placed it back into my waiting hand “It must be a million billion year old.” He said loudly.

I closed my hand over my treasure and clutched it to my chest, the cold of the metal permeating through my pink shirt.

I agreed solemnly.

I put it in my pocket but it was too big so I had to take it out again and hold in my hand as we walked. This time Sam stayed close by, his eyes on the ground instead in the air. Maybe he wanted to find his own treasure. Good for him. He wanted to be a real explorer too and find something great like I had.

As busy as we were exploring we remembered to look back around the time we came to another tent. We could just see a sliver of the blue green van suspended among the bright leaves. This tent was bright yellow and not like ours at all. It had an older boy who wanted to trade knives with me. His was blue instead of red. But I told him no, this was my treasure not his.

“But myka!” Sam took a step closer to me moving aside some of my hair so he could speak directly into my now cold ear, “His knife works and yours doesn’t!” I stepped away from him and brought my hand to my heart again. Shaking my head.

What did he know? He was five. And it was my treasure not his. Plus I was eager to get back to the adventure.

We walked for a while afterwards, until I looked back and realized that I could not see the van, although I could see the yellow tent and we could see the van from that, and the van was in the same clearing as out tent. I decided not to tell Sam in case he didn’t agree. Besides we were going in a straight line and we wouldn’t get lost, we couldn’t get lost really.

And Sam so wanted to be an explorer like I was. He really did.

So the birds continued to sing and I continued to go in a strait line and remember everything that no one else had ever seen.

This was so much fun.

It was so great that we were doing this.

Sam and I came to a wide stream with steep banks and I knew that if we wanted to continue we had to cross it. My lips pursed slightly we just had to keep going I could see the light shining through the trees and that meant that we were coming to the edge of the forest. There must be something amazing on the other side of those trees.

I slid down the embankment awkwardly, my shoes splashing loudly into the water. I hesitated, looking back towards Sam waiting gor him to follow me.

He scuffed one toe along the ground, uprooting mountains of dark brown pine needles as he went. “I don’t want to, we should go back.” My heart skipped a beat, he wasn’t going to stop me was he?

“We have to keep going Sam.” I told him, my mind running over how he could see the yellow tent and from the yellow tent we could see a little bit of the van and that the van was in the same clearing as the tent so we could continue onwards. Besides we were going in a straight line and we could not get lost. But it didn’t look like he had realized that so I didn’t bring it up.

“But there’s no rocks, we’ll get wet and then Daddy will know how far we have gone.” He shifted his weight awkwardly from foot to foot but stayed firmly on dry ground.

Maybe he wasn’t a real explorer like I was. Maybe he didn’t want to see what was on the other side of those trees like I did.

“Look at the way the light shines through the trees” I call towards him pointing towards the other side of them embankment. “there’s something amazing out there” Why wasn’t he coming with me?

He agreed only to wait for me. That was fair enough

I walked into the water, my feet kicking up billowing clouds of silt, the slight current making it dissipate until everything around me was dark and muddy. I reached the other side of the stream and climbed up the other side of the embankment. Pulling at the vines and underbrush with my hands, their slick green slipping through my fingers. Making it hard for me to hold the knife. I kept slipping and by the time that I got up my entire front side was muddy. But it didn’t matter because I was pushing through the last layer of underbrush and I was about to see the other side.

There was only a road, probably the one we had come in on, and on the other side of that road there was a tennis chourt, green and cheery but nobody was playing.

That was it. There was nothing left to explore. I was bitterly disappointed, besides it was getting a little dark and we had to get back. I looked at the knife in my hand. Maybe tomorrow Sam and I could hike again. Only this time go a different direction, the complete opposite direction.