Treasure Hunt

“Mornin' Snickerdoodle, it’s time to wake up.” My Mom says in her soft morning voice. She understands how difficult it is to open my eyes first thing in the morning. “It’s Friday sweetie, yay! I’m going to pick you like a little radish, right out of bed.” I give a little grin because she’s trying. My Mom says dorky stuff like that all the time. “Ugh ok” I utter in a quiet groggy voice. To be completely honest, I’m not ready to leave my warm snuggly bed behind, but I wrap my arms around her neck and she pulls me away from the top bunk. She smells nice having already gotten herself ready for the day and now she’s completely focused on me. The warm smell of fresh coffee invades my nose. I hear our dogs whining to be let out, and the chatter of news reporting coming from the TV in the living room where my Dad hovers over a bowl of cereal. My Mom’s focus remains on me. In a flash, my PJ’s are off and my school clothes are on… I have yet to open my eyes.

I love kindergarten. I love my school friends. I love my teacher, she really gets me. Mom usually drives me to school. We listen to loud music, and she lets me pick the songs. I sing along cause Mom loves my singing voice and it’s an enjoyable way to wake up my brain. Arriving at school, we slip our masks up and make our way to the front doors. A quick stop for temp checks and then we scoot down the hallway toward my classroom. The red brick walls are papered with art projects. Mom scans for new work with my name on it. She adores my artwork. I do a real nice job and I might be a true artist some day. I definitely have the talent. I hear that all the time, or I could be anything I choose to be. As we reach my classroom, my Mom says she loves me and tells me to have a good day. We give a quick hug, I grab my backpack and bounce into class.

Fridays are super duper busy. We have to take our spelling test, attend Spanish class, and we get to visit the library. After lunch we go to PE, which is just as fun as recess! My teacher puts several extra papers in my backpack for my Mom and Dad to read over the weekend. Before I know it, the school day is over and we are lining up to meet our parents outside the front doors. Another week of kindergarten in the books!

I hop in the car and buckle. My mask comes down and I take a deep relieving breath of fresh air. Mom and Dad are thrilled to see me. They immediately ask about my day. Unfortunately, the minute I sat down, I completely forgot every single detail about my school day. Yet there they sit, with eager ears and smiling faces, anticipating my recant of every wonderful minute. Alas, not one moment comes to mind. What could be wrong with me?! My mind starts to race, searching, searching, searching, for any bit of relevant information. Stress is rising! At this point I can only conclude, my brain is EMPTY! My memories are GONE FOREVER! How can this be? Why has this happened to me? My face is flush with shades of red. I’m totally overwhelmed by the swimming thoughts of memory loss. Uncontrollably, I grab two fists full of my own hair and cry aloud, “I don’t know what I did today! I guess I just did nothing! I didn’t actually learn anything!” I whale loudly. Mom interjects, “Wow, it’s ok sweetie! You’ll remember some things later on.” Dad quickly adds, “Hey, hey, it’s ok Buddy. Nothing to get upset about.” They shower me with understanding, and calming words, but I see the look they give each other. I feel defeated and retreat into silence. Mom and Dad refrain from chit chat because they don’t want to set me off again. The afternoon sun pours through the car window and covers my body like a warm blanket. Music from the radio drowns out my anxiety. I feel weightless but my eyes are heavy…so...so heavy...

Friday nights are free from routine and very relaxing. After dinner I ask my Mom if I can have thirty minutes added to my night-night time. “You bet Sweetie.” I knew she’d say yes! Feeling good, I decide to spend a little time on the iPad. I click into some of my apps, watch a few short videos, and play my favorite games. I finished all the levels of Mario Run last week but I like to redo them so I can earn rewards. I don’t need much help when I’m on the iPad. Mom says I have a knack for technology. I could be a coder someday for sure.

After a while my eyes start to feel dry. I check the window and see that dark is already here. How does that happen! I plop down in front of my lego drawers and start to build a car, or maybe a truck, we’ll see. My kitty Marshmallow became interested in my project or maybe he’s just interested in me. He rubs his head against my arm and purrs purrs purrs. Then he bats at a small Lego that had strayed away from me. It really annoys me when he does that because that’s how my Legos end up under the furniture. I do my best to ignore his behavior because I love Marshmallow so much. In fact, I have to keep a photo of him in my lunch box so I don’t miss him while I’m at school.

My Lego bricks snap together effortlessly. Man, I’m really in the zone. Few more bricks and this car will be ready to race! After I finished my build I gave it a couple of test runs down the hall. It’s performance exceeded my expectations! “Oh boy! Mom, you have to watch this!” She hops up from her recliner and Dad pressed the pause button on the TV remote. My audience is here. Everything is perfect. My Lego car is revving up as I make my best sound effects. I give it a firm steady push and release. The car speeds down the raceway. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Marshmallow takes off after my car. He flounders down the hallway with an awkward, almost drunken, gallop unlike any cat we’ve ever seen. Even so, he quickly gained on the car and pounced! Stopped in its tracks! The race is ruined! “MARSH! No! You ruined the whole race!” I melt to the floor and cry loudly. Mom and Dad try to comfort me but I refuse to find comfort after such a disaster! I simply won’t! The race was ruined and there’s no going back! There’s no fixing it. Mom and Dad share that look again and I continue to cry.

Saturday mornings are great. We stay in bed until there’s lots of light in the window. When I wake up on Saturday I’m super duper hungry. Mom says we have brunch on Saturdays. I always want scrambled eggs for my brunch. While we eat our eggs my Mom looks over the papers in my backpack. She pays special attention to a little black notebook that is my reading journal. I do a real nice job with my journal. My teacher decorates my pages with happy stamps that say ‘Great’ or ‘Super’ and stuff like that.

After brunch I begin to feel bored. Dad's heading out to his woodshop and he suggests I get out of the house as well. Sounds good to me. I change out of my pj's and into a pair of jeans and t-shirt. Slip on my socks and shoes and step out the front door.

It’s a gorgeous day. I hear a house finch shelling seeds at our feeder and I’m energized by the fresh springtime air. The ground is soft from recent rains. Perfect for treasure hunting! I make my way to the garage because I’ll need my green wheelbarrow and garden shovel. “Whatcha doin' Bubba” Daddy asks. I tell him, “I’m going on a treasure hunt!” “Cool! Anything over a million dollars you’ll have to split with me” he joked. “Well sure!” I smile and then head down the gravel drive. My empty barrow bounces around on the rocky surface. I stop for a sec to survey the front pasture. It’s too early in the spring for our animals to graze it so I have a rare opportunity to hunt on it. I zig zag around the ground. Looking for just the right spot. Waiting for just the right feeling.

After some aimless wandering I finally close in on an area of interest. I discovered three bushes grouped in such a way to form a triangle. There are three points in a triangle and three bushes. Their leaves are long and skinny and very pointy, but not ouchie. This is the spot! I can feel it! My hands release the handles of my wheelbarrow and I grab my little shovel. I visually calculate the center of this triangle and begin to dig. The ground is incredibly soft and I make quick progress. Suddenly my shovel hit something hard. Dang! I use my muscles to drive the tip of my shovel below the earth's surface. I make contact with that tough object and I feel some give. Again, I drive my shovel down. Again and again. Voila! I break through! I see flakes of metal littered throughout the mounds of dirt as I clear out the hole I just dug. A rectangular shaped box appears. It looks very similar to the box Daddy uses when he has a garage sale. He calls it the ‘change box’. This change box is in terrible shape. The smell of muddy earth and rusted tin penetrate my nose.

Phew, this was hard work but I managed to unearth the old box. I peel away the brittle lid and find something quite unexpected. Old used money! I examine one of the rolls carefully. I see 100 in the corner of every bill. I know 100 is a lot! We celebrated our 100th day at school so I am very familiar with this number! And, I have a feeling there’s more than one hundred one hundreds in this box. I decided to load the old money into my barrow and take it up to the house. I’m ready for a snack!

Dad’s still working hard in his woodshop. I struggle through the gravel with my wheel barrow. Dad noticed me coming. “Hey buddy, have any luck today?” he asks with sincere interest. “Sure did!” I utter between grunts as I fight to keep my wheelbarrow balanced. Daddy walks over to lend me a hand. He peers into my barrow and lights up with surprise. “Holy cow!” He yells. Mom immediately peeked out the door and asked if everyone's ok? Dad, still in a rather loud, and excited, voice, says, “We’re GREAT Hon! Come take a look at this!” She steps over and takes a look at my treasure. Mass confusion sweeps over her face and she’s a loss for words. “Let’s get this treasure inside so we can take a better look.” Dad suggests. I appreciate the help very much. We sort out the money and group the bills into piles of twenty. Ten piles of twenty bills. “Hmmm, ten units of twenty is two hundred” I inform everyone. Dad is much faster in his calculation and declares 20,000 Dollars!! Mom cheers and gives me a high five! “Thank goodness it’s not equal to a million dollars cause then I’d have to split it with Daddy! Hehehehe!”