Walking with grandma

Waking into the room, three girls and a grandma, seek an adventure without any idea of what awaits them. 

A log cabin confronted by a teepee faces off right before their eyes and nearby hang the pelts of animals whose short earthly lives are extended by a long association with education.  Raccoons, and skunks, foxes and squirrels, hang side by side with a plethora of other creatures so the children of today can see what their great grandfathers grew up with.

Other creatures, luckier, or not, live on in aquariums and clamber at their glass walls, eagerly seeking the attention of the only diversion they are allowed: looking at humans filing endlessly past their small worlds.  The girls reach out sweetly and watch as the turtles follow their fingers up and down and across the thin barrier between them.

Something slithers past that peripheral place that allows shivers to run up and down spines, but is still contained in other aquariums and everyone turns to look at the snakes, who put on quite a show.  Dead mice lie on rocks, ready snacks for creatures that are not yet hungry, but one is thirsty and dips into his water bowl with a tiny forked tongue.

And then something moves that is not inside a cage.  Large and furry, it lounges amid a pile of bones and wings, hooves and antlers, snake skins and unfurry pelts.  The girls run over to pet it and the huge, overfed cat stretches languorously under all the attention.  He seems totally unaware of the charnel house that is his couch, preferring to focus on the luxury of being pampered.

Suddenly they are drawn by the sound of birds and discover the next room.  Now the girls are the exhibit, enclosed in a glass aquarium for people that birds can come to view as they eat dinner in a variety of small avian cafes.  They flit around, listening to the bird calls recorded and filed away under pictures of their makers mixing in with the live ones coming through the outside microphones.

The whole building is one of sensory delight, preparing them for what comes next.  Stepping out of the glass walled world of the building, they venture into the forest and become part of the world outside.

The rest of the afternoon is spent wandering through the chapel in the woods, smelling the hints of wildflowers and earthy pine trees.  Long muddy paths lead to longer grassy ones.  Deadfalls lie off to the side, lovely sculptures made by a hand much larger than theirs.  Gnarly trees look down upon them, remarking at their youth and beauty. 

Finally they leave the trees to walk through the old cemetery, monuments left by man to mark the time dear ones walked through this world and then stepped through the veil.  A final stop in a small country church that predates even their great grandfather’s time and the adventure is over…but just for today.

Three girls and a grandma, seeking an adventure to mark the moments they spend together.