Emmy's Day Off

 

Most mornings when Emmy awoke, and had some breakfast, she studied for a couple of hours. She had decided to do home school, and she was greatly enjoying not taking the long bus ride into town and spending a lot of each day with just the mechanics of being in school.
            This morning felt different.
The Golden Frog sat in his tiny green house, but she could hear him whispering about going out of doors. “It’s spring,” he said. “All the world is waiting,” he said. He buzzed like a bee in Emmy’s mind.
            She dressed in jeans, canvas sneakers, t-shirt, and a little jacket with zipper pockets. The jacket was red corduroy and had a hood. Beth had sewn it for her.
            She put the Golden Frog in the right side pocket, and zipped him in securely. Her little phone went in the left pocket. Being wise to herself, she kept it in a zip lock sandwich baggie.
            Out in the kitchen, Beth was drinking coffee and checking things out online. Jesse had already left for the day. Honda lay under the table taking a morning nap. She didn’t see Billy, but he was around there somewhere, probably asleep too.
            “Mom, I’m thinking about taking a walk,” Emmy told her mother. “This frog won’t stop talking about going outside.” It was something they frequently joked about, as if the frog did talk.
            “Better eat some of those eggs then,” said Beth, taking her eyes off of the small screen to look at her daughter. Emmy was not a very big girl for her age. She had snappy dark brown eyes, like Jesse’s people, and curly black hair. Those curls are just about all she got from me, Beth thought. But she was smiling.
            Mother and daughter, had coffee together. Emmy liked cream in her coffee. She rolled her eggs up in a flour tortilla, with green salsa.
            “Take your phone, Emmy. Don’t wander too far,” said Beth.
            “It’s in my pocket. I’ll have to come back when I get hungry,” said Emmy.
            Billy turned up, yawning and stretching, from wherever he had been sleeping. For such a large cat he could hide well. Billy mostly kept his own council.
            “Want to come with me, Honda?” Emmy said, looking down under the table. Honda certainly did want to come with her!
            Outside, it was a breezy spring day, cool for Navajo country. Emmy noticed that the hens were still in their hutch. Jesse fed the hens before leaving for his shop. She glanced at their water pan just to make sure. Emmy loved the hens.
            Aunt Julia had loved the hens too.
            The consuming mystery of their lives was Aunt Julia. She was never found, no matter how hard she was searched for. There were theories, but people can’t resist making up theories, and Emmy didn’t believe any of it.
            Emmy and Julia had been very close, and to Emmy she didn’t feel gone. Not really.
            “Which way shall we go, Honda? River or road?”
            Honda headed to the little stream that Emmy called a river. Emmy followed slowly, doing a few fancy little walking steps that she had learned from Julia. It slowed her down, but of course Honda didn’t mind.
            The wind blew a few low clouds in. A little rain splattered Emmy and Honda.
            “Shall we go downstream?” she said, pulling her hood up over her curls.
            There was a path beside the stream. If they followed it for a mile or so, it would meet a larger stream. The water was higher than usual. It always dried up some in the summer.
            Honda dashed in and out of the water, bringing Emmy stones. She put a nice agate in her pocket with the frog, zipping them both in.
            Then the rain came down. The sky darkened. There was a flash of lightning, and thunder. Another flash. Honda walked closely with her now. The thunder bothered him a little.
            “There is something in the water,” murmured the Golden Frog. “Can you see?”
            The phone in Emmy’s pocket buzzed. It was Beth. “Are you hungry yet?”
            “Almost. I’m getting pretty wet!” laughed Emmy. Meanwhile she was looking closely into the little stream. Holding a steady position in the stream was a huge fish.
            It had whiskers! A catfish! Emmy knew he didn’t belong here.
            “Are you lost?” said Emmy to the fish.
            “I’m tired,” said the fish. “A yellow dog told me that if I swam up here that there was a wonderful lake of still water.”
            “Ma’ii is a liar, Fish. He wanted to catch you in shallow water and gobble you up!” said Emmy. “There is no lake up this tiny stream.”
            “Oh, woe!” said the great fish. “Now that I am weary, will you capture me and gobble me up?”
            “No, fish. But I will help you turn around. Then you can swim easily to where you belong,” said Emmy.
            So, Emmy waded out to where the water was knee deep. She wasn’t sure how to help the fish turn around, but she was willing. When she reached him, she saw that his belly lay heavily on the rocks below him.
            While Honda watched, just in case she needed him, Emmy reached both arms down into the water, hugging the fish. Then she lifted him and turned him head for tail so that he was headed back down stream.
            “Go home fish, and never believe a word from Ma’ii!” said Emmy, still standing knee deep in water.
            “May the Maker of All, always grant you mercy,” said the fish as he swam downstream.
            “You’ve gotten me and your phone wet,” said the Golden Frog.
            “I bet I did,” said Emmy, carefully walking up out of the water. She could hardly have gotten any wetter if she dove in. “I may end up living without a phone for a while. Sometimes those bags leak.”
            When Emmy and Honda returned home, they got all dried off, and had some lunch with Beth and Billy.

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