TOPAZ MOUNTAIN TREASURE
by
Grandma
Baadsgaard
Happy 7th
birthday Logan. I love you so.
Logan packed his hand-held pick, screen
board, and goggles into his back pack and put on some sunscreen. He tugged his
sun hat over his head and climbed in the front seat of the truck. Today was
Logan’s day alone with his dad.
“Today I will find treasure,” Logan
said to his father.
As Logan’s father backed from the
driveway and headed toward Topaz Mountain, Logan put on his sun glasses and
made sure his gloves were in his pockets. He stared out the window of the truck
as they left town and headed toward the desert. Two hours passed as they drove
down the long grey highway. Logan watched as all the green plants and farmer’s
fields turned to brown sagebrush and tumble weeds.
Then all of a sudden, Logan saw a huge
imposing white and grey mountain ahead.
“Is that it?” Logan asked.
His father nodded as he took the turn
off and dove down a long washboard dirt road that led to the base of the mountain.
When he stopped the truck, Logan jumped out and ran toward a rocky outgrowth.
The sunlight caught thousands of tiny crystals embedded in the rock.
As soon as Logan reached the place in
the rock where he saw the sparkle, his shadow hid the sun and the glistening
stones disappeared.
“Now I can’t find any,” Logan said.
“Sometimes if you want to find treasure,
you have to think like a piece of topaz,” his father said. “If you were a
crystal, where would you hide?”
Logan looked carefully and slowly around
him. He noticed the sand at his feet. He thought about rain storms and water
running off the mountains after a storm.
“If I were a piece of topaz, I’d hide in
the sand at the bottom of a washout,” Logan said.
He took off his glove, knelt down and
brushed his hand over the soft sand. Instantly a piece of topaz popped up.
“I found one,” Logan yelled as he
carefully placed the stone in his pocket.
Next Logan took his square screen board from
his back pack, filled it with sand and shook it. When all the sand fell through
the screen holes, two small topaz crystals remained. He placed these two small
stones in his other pocket. Next he
looked up at the cliff face and spied another glint of light. Right at the top
of the bluff he saw a large crystal embedded in the rock. He climbed up the
rock face, took out his chisel and hammered into the rock.
After a long time of chiseling, Logan couldn’t
remove the crystal.
“It won’t come out,” Logan said.
“Maybe this one wants to stay in the
mountain,” his father said. “Sometimes the most beautiful creations are meant
to stay where they are.”
Driving home in the truck that evening,
Logan watched the sun setting behind Topaz Mountain and sighed.
“I wish this day could last forever,”
Logan said.
Then he slid over next to his father.
“I found my treasure,” Logan said just
before he fell asleep.
“Logan - you are my treasure,” his
father whispered as Logan’s head snuggled into the soft fold of his arm.
