“Hey! You Got Eyeballs In There?” Book IV: Grandma Grace 46. Search For Boy and Dog

Hey! You Got Eyeballs In There?

By Kate Chamberlin

As Grace grows up, some of her stories are happy, some trying, some enlightening, and a few themes are sad, but, they’re all the warp and woof of what goes into the tapestry of life we call Family. The daily living skills and techniques demonstrated by the fictional characters in these stories are valid, tried and true.

Book IV:  Grandma Grace

#43. Charles and David

#44. Grandma Grace’s S’mores

#45. Green Trillium In May

#46.  Search For Boy And Dog

“Let’s start looking for them down by the pond,” Grandma said and plopped her broad brimmed straw hat on her curly gray hair. She held Sarah’s elbow as they stepped off the porch.

“I suspect Liam would try to catch a few frogs and I know Peyton loves to swim,” Grandma said. But after they’d walked down the lane to the pond, Liam and Peyton were nowhere to be found.

“Peyton, come,” Grandma called, but Peyton didn’t come.

Sarah and Grandma walked on past the pond, swatting mosquitoes as they took the path around the bog.

“M-m-m-m” Grandma said, taking a deep breath. “Just smell that bog. Be careful to stay on the path. I’d hate to smoosh any of the little wildflowers. Some of them are really rare.”

“There are so many yellow flowers here. They don’t seem rare. What are they?” Sarah asked.

“These are Marsh Marigolds. Granddad and I call this our Golden Valley. If we take the path to the right, it will take us to the drumlin woods.”

Sarah and Grandma entered the trail in the woods.

“How did you know we were in the woods?” Sarah asked Grandma.

“Well, I smell the decaying, wet leaves from last year and feel the coolness of the budding Maple and Beech trees. Do you see Liam and Peyton or their footprints in the soft earth?”

“No,” Sarah said.

“Peyton, come,” Grandma called again. They both heard the dog’s single bark and Liam’s faint, “Over here.” As Peyton bound into view.

Liam’s tear-stained face looked up at them from the nurse log he was sitting on. “I tried to catch a chipmunk and slipped on the leaves, hurting my ankle. I tried to get your dumb dog to go home, but she wouldn’t go.”

Grandma knelt down and gently felt Liam’s ankle. “It’s a little puffy, but there doesn’t seem to be any breaks. Let’s peel some cool bark to put on it. Your sock will hold the splint in place. Sarah, can you find a thick stick with a V at one end?”

Liam was really disappointed that his sprained ankle kept him from going into town that afternoon. He sat stewing in Granddad’s smelly, over-stuffed chair with an ice bag on his ankle when Grandma came in to see him.

“How are you doing?” She asked as Peyton, wearing her harness, led her to his chair.

“Okay,” Liam replied sullenly.

“When I went to wash your muddy shorts, I found these in your pocket, “she said. “What are they?”

“They’re my Ultimate Trading Cards,” Liam said.

“Do they have pictures on them? Do you trade your doubles or play games with them?” she asked. “I wonder if they’re like my old Yew-Go-Wild cards?”

Liam and Grandma were deep in concentration, trying to remember where the matching wildflower cards were hidden face down on the table, when the others came in from shopping.

“Look, Sarah,” Liam said. “Once we find all the wildflower matches, we add up the points to see who won. Some of the wildflowers are excused…”

“Do you mean extinct?” Grandma said smiling.

“Yeah, extinct,” he agreed. “That means they don’t grow here any more, like the dinosaurs. They’re gone.”

In the morning, Grandma soaked his ankle in baking soda water and it felt a lot better, so he, Sarah, and Grandma took Peyton out for a walk.

“Grandma, are any of those wildflowers on your cards around here?” Liam asked.

“Let’s start at Golden Valley,” Grandma said. “Marsh Marigold is one of the wildflower cards. Because of the glacier activity many, many years ago, this area is a bog and several special wildflowers grow here. Do you see how close together the mounds of plants grow? That’s nature’s way of keeping out the weeds. The Marsh Marigold is also called Cowslip.”

“Oh, no,” Sarah laughed. “Now I know why Mom laughs every time she says: I’ve seen ‘Cows Slip’ under the fence!”

They came near the edge of the drumlin woods and Grandma said, “Now look for a little plant that looks like a balcony with a roof over it. Don’t pick it off the stem, but gently lift up the flap. Do you see Jack-in-the-pulpit?

“I found one, but it looks like it has two things, Grandma,” Liam said excitedly. “What’s that called?”

“My mother used to call it Jack-and-Jill-in-the-pulpit”, Grandma laughed. “It is rare to find two of them that have grown so close together that they look like Jack-and-Jill-in-the-Pulpit. She often said that if two people are true soul-mates, they’ll come back to the place they love, growing so close together that they look like one.  Sometimes, their family and friends will circle ‘round them.”

“Granddad and I call this Trillium Heaven,” Grandma said as they went deeper into the woods where the ground was speckled with sun-light splashing through the tree branches. Sarah saw googles of white trillium and red trillium.

“The Red trillium or Wake Robin is also called the Stinky Trillium,” Grandma said, hoping she didn’t sound like she was back in the classroom teaching Botany.

“Grandma, why are there so many colors?” Sarah asked.

“Some think it is because of a disease that turns them different colors. Others say it is just the flower passing its prime,” Grandma said.

“Sarah,” Liam hollered. “Look at this one. It has three leaves and three white petals. There’s no stalk, Grandma, and it’s almost all green.”

“Liam, you’ve found the rare Sessile trillium,” grandma exclaimed. “It’s also called the Toad Shade Trillium.”

On the last morning of their visit, Sarah, Liam, and Grandma went hiking. This time, they brought along the wildflower cards. They found matches for Squirrel Corn, Rattle Snake Fern, Skunk Cabbage, Hepatica, Trout Lily, Pitcher Plant, False Solomon’s Seal, Spring Beauty, and Wild Ginger.

On their way back to the farmhouse, a sudden spring downpour came toward them from across the valley.

“Let’s run for that shack!” Sarah hooted, grabbing Grandma’s elbow. “It’s rather dilapidated, but it might keep us dry.”

After the shower had passed, the sunbeams came through the tree branches to form a brilliant rainbow blessing the Golden Valley.

Later in the car as they made the long trip home, Sarah was deep in thought as she read the book Grandma had given her about Jane Colden, the first woman botanist in Colonial America. Sarah knew she’d treasure it forever.

Liam stuck on the last sticker in his new Wildflower sticker book and sorted through the Yew-Go-Wild cards Grandma had given him. “Look, Mom,” Liam suddenly said and shoved a Yew-Go-Wild card at her. “Here’s the Dutchman’s Britches. Grandma said:

Dutchmen’s britches hanging in a row.

On tiny clotheslines you grow;

Rain and dew will wash you,

soil and dirt will go away.

Sun will dry you

on a sunny day.

“And look at this one, Mom. Grandma said the Native Americans used to use the juice from the Blood Root to paint their faces.”

“Mom,” he said with a yawn, “When can we go back to Grandma’s? She said we’ll look for a Lady’s pink Slipper and she told me where there is a really cool, hollow tree I can explore.”

Another yawn and Liam slumped in his seat belt, fast asleep. His wildflower cards slipped off his lap and scattered on the floor of the car, just like the wildflowers in the bog and drumlin woods of Wayne County New York.