The Crystal

I wasn't there for the discovery. I walked in on this episode in the life of Sammy after the pivotal moment had already occurred. But I like to think that without me, Sammy wouldn't have his treasure. I am getting ahead of myself here. Let me back up a bit.

Years ago Daniel took possession of a geode that Suzy and I had for some reason. He took it, and some other colored rocks he had found, into the back yard and was playing with them. Often times that is a one-way journey for things, they get taken into the backyard and never return to the house. Since the geode had gone missing I really hadn't given it much thought.

Until, that is, I came home from work last week and Sammy rushed up to me with a look of sheer excitement.

'Dada, guess what I found!'

'The battle droid command base?'

'No, I found... a crystal.'

'A crystal?'

Of course you have figured out that the crystal was the very same one Daniel had taken into the backyard years ago and had been buried by bushes, dirt and who know what else. After finding this tremendous treasure, Sammy was convinced that our backyard was fertile ground for geological wonders, so he kept digging. And he found stuff. All of those other colored rocks that Daniel had left out there years before were recovered, washed off and proudly displayed in the house.

Sammy was so proud and excited by his discovery of the crystal that he had to take it to school to share with his class. I don't know how that went (oh, to be a fly on the wall during that show and tell), but when Nana brought Sammy home today, the crystal was coming home too.

There was a problem though. We got a call from Nana stating that the crystal was stuck. Sammy had put it in the cup holder of her car, and it had fallen through and wedged itself deep in the recesses of the Prius. My poor son was distraught. Being the good father that I am, and having watched too many episodes of MacGyver to count, I knew that I could help.

'Come on home, I'll take a look at it.'

So, since Suzy was off at the church at a meeting, I had Nana be in charge of getting the boy's teeth brushed and put them in bed while I battled with the geode. It was a terrible battle. Many times I thought of giving up, but the thought of facing Sammy without the geode was too much to bear. I brought tools from the garage, I powered up the flashlight. Even a poor wooden chopstick was sacrificed at the alter of the recovery process, but in the end I did it. I managed to grab hold of the geode with a pair of pliers and carefully extract said geode from the crevice in which it was jammed (thank you Operation). I made my way upstairs and presented Sammy with his treasure. The crystal rock had been recovered, a bit worse for wear maybe, but recovered.

Sammy looked at me with loving eyes, and said,

'Thank you, dada' with such sincerity that all the effort was worth it.

'You're welcome buddy. Goodnight.'

And that is how I saved the crystal rock, and restored it to its rightful owner.