Before the boy's sister was toddling, before she was a person, the boy himself was a toddling child getting into all sorts of mischief and mayhem. The boy was a wanderer, he was the type of child that did not know that sitting still was a thing. He could be found in any location attached to the property or even an adjacent strip of land or dwelling that he could manage to meander into. An occurrence that was often the dilemma of the Mother. The many letters that follow a child's name today as a manner of diagnosing the reasons for the meandering and not acknowledging the sitting still part of life had not been invented yet, the boy was a seeker, a finder of things unknown to human eyes.
There was a stream on the back side of the property that spilled into a small lake. The lake had trees and grew around a small beach of white sand that the family would enjoy swimming from and have an occasional picnic. The property was an oasis in the middle of the northern expanse of the Great American Desert. For miles around the land was brown and dry in the summer, and cold and frozen in the winter. but on the property hay grew green, the trees reached for the sky, and wildlife would commune and flourish. It was a small piece of heaven that The Old Man and Grandma had been working for generations with Mom and Dad and the boy helping as family should.
The boy was wandering. No one was sure this time how long he had been gone. It could be the manner of minutes or hours. He was supposed to be napping. Apparently the boy had ditched a diaper, grabbed his favorite blanket and crawled prowled out the back door of Winston, this was before the Bel Aire had been added to the front.
A massive search was begun. Grandma was looking, Mother was panicking, Dad was walking toward the back side of the property, and The Old Man was chuckling and grooming his roan. A reddish brown mare that loved the attention. After he finished giving the horse the attention she thrived The Old Man put his brushes and comb away then walked towards the back of the main barn. It was getting dark.
In the barn The Old Man could hear some shuffling and giggling coming from up above the floor. He flicked the light switch and the barn opened up to him. The stalls in front where all empty, the horses were out in the field running. The back of the barn was dark with saddles and tac lining rows of hooks and hangers. Then he heard a giggle and looked up. The boy was standing high over head looking down at The Old Man, arms stretched out. The Old Man chuckled and stepped towards the opening under the second floor of the barn. He smiled up and the boy who then jumped and fell into The Old Man's arms. A game they had played before. The boy was not afraid, he was happy.
The Old Man carried the boy back to Winston and waited for the rest of the search party. He redressed the boy and gave him some warm cereal. The boy smiled and drooled as he ate his snack. The world was good. The rest of the family was not as happy at the boy which was a source of amusement for The Old Man. He knew, the boy was just like him.
As the summer progressed the boy would occasionally wander and bring back treasures from his walks. Colored rocks, funny shaped sticks, and a puppy. The Mother was unsure, the Dad was ok, Grandma had a questioning look, and The Old Man picked up the puppy, "Where's your mother little fella?" The puppy was a runt wolf pup.
Dad left to go search and came back a short time latter. "The mother is dead," he said. "Looks like she's been shot." Wolves are usually not appreciated by the neighbors. Fortunately the closest neighbor is miles away. Grandma took the puppy and began cleaning it up. He turned out to be a loyal pet.
It was the beginning of August now and the boy was was again wandering. He managed to walk to the back of the main stall area of the horse barns. The lights in the stalls were off, but the boy could see. He could see a rainbow. It was coming down from the sky in the middle of the field. The lights covered every thing he could see. The rainbow was soft and warm, the boy was happy. After awhile he could hear some music and voices. Someone was talking to him, they were asking him his name and where he came from. Things that people would ask a lost child. One of the voices, a lady with a soft sing song voice, picked the boy up and carried him into a large car. Inside the car the rainbow was all around and the music could be heard everywhere. The boy smiled up at the lady, who looked like sparkling lights. He could hear the motor running, a high whine. He could feel himself moving in the car. There was another voice, his was lower, but soft. The music kept playing and the car stopped.
The lady carried the boy out of the car and put him down on some soft grass. The boy knew where he was. The voice said, "Wait here, they'll be here to take you home soon." She brushed his hair out of his face and disappeared. The boy saw the car back away then fly straight up into a cloud followed by the rainbow. He was alone on a small hill in the grass.
The boy didn't know how long he was there, he didn't know about time yet, but he heard his Mother's voice, then Dad's, and Grandma's, finely The Old Man, he was laughing. They found him on the hill and took him back to the house on the rise in front of a lake. This was not the same lake on the property it was a lake 250 miles away next to the house of Dad's cousin in Billings Heights. No one knows how the boy got there, but the boy was happy.
Peace and Balance,
John
