By James E. Kerns

A fictional story

 

"Come on, Jamie," his dad said.  "Let's go down to the pond.  I'll show you what I used to do when I was a boy."

The pond was below the barn.  Cattails grew along the edge, and rocks lined the banks.  "When I was a boy, my father showed me how to turn rocks over so that we could look under them.  Sometimes you can find really interesting things."

Jamie and his dad turned over rocks.  Under the third rock they found a coiled-up garter snake.  The snake was surprised to suddenly be in the light.  It slowly uncoiled and slithered away through the grass.

There was a mouse burrow under the fourth rock.  Under the fifth rock they found a salamander.  That's what Jamie's dad said it was.  Jamie had never seen a salamander before.  It looked a lot like a lizard, and it moved really slowly.

Jamie and his dad looked under several more rocks.  The only other interesting thing that they found was a colony of ants.  The ants scurried this way and that as they carried their eggs to safety.

"See that rock pile over there, Jamie?  Those rocks used to be scattered all over this farm.  Your grandfather picked all of those rocks up, loaded them on a wagon, and hauled them out of the fields.

"Some of the rocks went into the cement that made the strong walls of our barn.  Grandpa used other rocks to make rock walls, our fireplace, and chimney.

"Grandpa liked rocks.  He always said that every rock is different, every rock is useful, and every rock has something interesting beneath it.  He made up a poem about rocks:

"Look under rocks, all that you will,

You'll likely find treasure, up on the hill."

The next day Jamie went up on the hill above the house.  There were still a lot of rocks up there that Grandpa hadn't picked up.  Jamie rolled some over.  He found ants, beetles, a mouse nest, and a beautiful, iridescent blue lizard.  Quick as a wink, the lizard zipped away and disappeared into a nearby jumble of rocks.

"You found a blue lizard under a rock?" Jamie's dad asked in amazement.  "That's really special.  I've only seen a little blue lizard like that twice before in my life.  They're really quick, aren't they?"

Jamie was hooked.  Wherever he went he watched for rocks that might have something interesting under them.  He even had a favorite rock.  He called it Lookout Rock.  It was up on the hill, and flat on top.  He could sit on it and see the whole farm.

He was sitting on Lookout Rock one day and was looking at a nearby rock outcropping.  From a hole underneath the outcropping came five red fox pups.  Jamie sat quietly and watched the foxes play in the sun.

Jamie liked to sit on Lookout Rock and think.  He thought how exciting it would be if one day he'd turn over a rock and find a real treasure.  Maybe pirates had sailed up the river long ago and had buried their treasure somewhere around here.  If they had, they'd have picked a distinctive-looking rock under which to bury the treasure so that they could find the place again.

Jamie looked around.  The only really distinctive rock was the one he was sitting on.  He slid off Lookout Rock and looked all around it.  Under one edge he found a squirrel hole.  He stuck his hand into the hole and felt under the rock.  To his surprise, he found that Lookout Rock was flat on the bottom, too.

Lookout Rock wasn't as big as Jamie had thought it was.  Maybe Jamie could move it.  His dad had showed him how to move rocks that were bigger than he was.  Jamie rolled a rock up to within a foot of the squirrel hole.  That rock would be his fulcrum.

Jamie then got a big, straight stick from a grove of nearby trees.  The stick would be his lever.  Jamie stuck the end of the stick down the squirrel hole, and wedged it under the edge of Lookout Rock.  He rested the lever on top of the fulcrum.  Jamie grabbed the other end of the stick and pulled down as hard as he could.  Lookout Rock moved!

Jamie rolled his fulcrum rock closer to Lookout Rock, put his stick under the edge of the big rock again, and pulled down on the end of the lever.  Lookout Rock moved again.  Jamie looked under the rock.  A hole was appearing.  There was a cavity under Lookout Rock.

Jamie had to reset his fulcrum, and use his lever three more times before he was able to see into the cavity under Lookout Rock.  The cavity was a hole formed by flat rocks stacked on top of each other that made a circular wall.  At the bottom of the hole, sitting on another rock, was a rusty bucket with a lid on it.  Jamie ran all the way home.  "Dad, Dad, you've got to come see what I found under Lookout Rock!"

Jamie's dad hiked back up the hill with him.  "Jamie, I sat on this rock all the time when I was a boy, and I never thought to try to look under it," Jamie's dad said.  Together they lifted the bucket out.  What treasure would they find in it?  Carefully they removed the lid.

Inside was an old toy truck, an old marble, a homemade slingshot, a wooden whistle made from a willow limb, and a brittle piece of paper with writing on it.

Jamie's dad read the paper.  "Father says that it's time for me to put away childish things and become a man.  These are my favorite things.  I'm burying them under my favorite rock on my 12th birthday, September 20, 1922.  Someday I'll have a son.  I'll teach him to look under rocks.  Maybe he'll discover these things and like them as much as I do."  The paper was signed "James Taylor."

"Jamie!  This paper was written by your grandfather.  I named you after him.  He taught me to look under rocks, but he never told me there was anything buried here.  This is a real treasure."

Jamie thought so, too.  He played with the truck.  He put the marble in a jar, and put it in a special place on his chest of drawers.  His dad showed him how to put a new rawhide string on the slingshot, and taught him how to use it.  They used the willow whistle as a model for making new ones just like it.

Several days later Jamie was back at Lookout Rock.  He put a plastic container covered by a tight lid down into the hole.  Then using his lever and fulcrum, he worked until he finally got Lookout Rock back into its original position covering the hole.

When he was done, Jamie sat on top of Lookout Rock and thought about his grandchildren.