RosFrankie And Beyond: Chapter 6

Check out links at end of each chapter...
Chapter 1 - May 14, 2009 - Tutu Troubles

Chapter 2 – Oct. 07, 2009 – About My Friends

Chapter 3 – Oct. 15, 2009 – The Inheritance

Chapter 4 – Oct. 22, 2009 – Finding Answers

Chapter 5 – Oct. 29, 2009 – A New Friend

Chapter 6 – Nov. 05, 2009 – A Treasure Map

Chapter 7 – Nov. 12, 2009 – A Treasure Hunt

Chapter 8 – Nov. 19, 2009 – And Beyond

Chapter 9 – Nov. 26, 2009 – Lost Data

Chapter 10 – Dec. 3, 2009 – Found Data

Chapter 11 – Dec. 10, 2009 – The Castle Cellar

Chapter 12 – Dec. 17, 2009 – Forever Never Ending

RosFrankie and Beyond

Chapter 6

A Treasure Map

This summer has been an interesting summer for me. At summer’s end, one warm day early in September, as I am relaxing in my mud bog, I start thinking about Sunbeam and Brant and Cana and Puff and Méabh. I realize that between exploring and flying off and just doing the things they all do, they do many things, go many places and learn a lot of stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. I start to list in my mind all the places I want to go, all the things I want to do, and all the stuff I want to learn.

It is a very long list.

I want to watch the sun rise at Stonehenge.

I want to climb Mt. Fuji in the winter.

I want to sail the Seven Seas but I don’t even know where they are.
I want to fly to Andromeda and collect Andromedean stones.
I want to go in a submarine way down deep into the ocean.
I want to learn to play native drums.
I want to take photographs of penguins in Antarctica.
I want to understand the Bernoulli Principle.
I want to white water raft the Colorado River.
I want to see America from the top of Mt. McKinley.
I want to drink my first glass of wine from grapes I grow myself.
I want to sleep in the Rain Forest and hear the sounds of the jungle night.
I want to listen to the wind as it blows at Mesa Verde.
I want to tap a maple tree in March.
I want to make Spruce Tip tea.
I want to invent a time machine so I can ride dinosaurs.
I want to hike with the wolves in Siberia.
I want to go to Disney World before Florida goes under the ocean.
I want to speak a language I have never spoken before.
I want to understand things which I don’t understand.
I want to not be afraid to try doing things and to not worry about being laughed at.
I want to learn from my mistakes.
I want to do things which don’t yet even exist to do.

‘When will I ever be able to do all these things?’ I ask my mother.

‘Not to worry,’ my mother says, ‘You will have plenty of time to do many different things. But, sometimes, you will have to decide how to budget your time and your energy and your money, because sometimes you won’t have the time to do everything. And sometimes you will just want to sit in your mud bog and do nothing. Sometimes it is difficult to make decisions. But you will grow and you will learn and you will do. And you will love. That is life. ’

‘I think,’ thinks me, ‘that I will have to live to be 120 years old to do everything I want to do.’

Just at this point, Méabh comes along to the mud bog.

‘RosFrankie,’ she says, ‘I have something for you. My butler But has been doing all sorts of strange things to the castle cellar walls trying to figure out how to heat it geothermally, and he found this piece of paper pushed deep into one of the cracks way down in the deepest part of the cellar. It’s rather interesting but right now I have no time to investigate what it might mean. I just have too many other things to do first. So I thought I would give it to you and you could spend some time figuring out what it is all about.’

With that, she quickly gives me an old folded piece of paper and then she just as quickly turns around and leaves to go do the things which Méabh does. Without even saying ‘Good-bye.’ Méabh is like that. And that is okay with me because I know everyone is different from everyone else and that is why I always accept people for who they are, and don’t expect them to act like someone else. All of my friends know they can be themselves around me and they don’t have to pretend to be someone else.

But the paper Méabh gave me is very strange. It is old and stained and has many creases from being folded and unfolded so many times. It has a big red X on it and at the bottom are old written words which say Treasure Map. But there is nothing else on the map. No diagrams of any kind.

‘Oh,’ I say to myself, ‘I bet it is written with a special kind of magic ink which appears and disappears. A special formula ink! How will I ever figure it out?’

‘RosFrankie,’ my mother calls, ‘It’s time to start to get ready for the first day at school.’

‘The first day of school! I almost forgot!’

It is a very important first day of school for me. I will be going to a different school than last year because I am in a higher grade now. And I will be going with many other students whom I don’t know. My mother tells me not to worry about people I don’t know because people I don’t know are simply friends I haven’t met yet. But I will also have a new teacher. A Ms. Wiseman.

‘Well,’ I think to myself, as I try to brush the mud out of my fur, ‘I know what I will say to my new teacher. I will ask her right away to tell me everything she knows about magic ink. Well, maybe I will say ‘hello’ first and tell her my name. But I sure hope she knows a lot because I’ve got a lot I want to learn and I’ve only got about 110 years left to learn it all.’

And with that, I go off to do the things which I do.

The mud bog is empty now. Sooner or later, myself or someone else will come along to sit in the mud bog and relax and think in the soothing comfort of the mud. Mud bogs are like that. They are never empty for very long.