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Fiction. © Copyright 1997, Jim Loy
The marriage of George and Elizabeth was in trouble. They insulted each other. They fought, verbally. They found fault. They would have broken up in a minute, except for their 5-year-old son Mikey. They both wanted to save the marriage. But, they didn't know how.
Then George had an idea, "Let's have a picnic." Elizabeth was skeptical. But George was enthusiastic. Mikey was very enthusiastic. He ran out of the house, to tell the neighbors that he was going to have a picnic. Elizabeth was reluctantly won over by the enthusiasm of her two "boys." She had to admit to herself that the family had not been this pleasant in many months.
Later, they drove to a little park, just outside of town. They finished eating, at a picnic table. George and Elizabeth walked, holding hands, along a path in the woods. Mikey was running about, exploring the woods. The path led to the river, where George and Elizabeth sat and threw stones. Later, when George and Elizabeth had returned from their walk, and they were picking up their things and putting them in the car, they couldn't find Mikey. They couldn't remember seeing Mikey, for quite a while. They called out his name. And they went into the woods to search for him, and there was no sign of him. Where was Mikey?
Other picnickers and campers helped them look for Mikey. It got dark. Someone called the Sheriff. Eventually dozens of men and boys with flashlights were searching the woods for Mikey, calling his name. A helicopter flew up and down the river, shining its spotlight at the shore, and into the water.
At first, George was part of the search party. As he walked through the woods, he was muttering to himself, "Let's have a picnic. Great idea. I'm a God-damned genius. Let's have a picnic..." He kicked a rock, and pretended that his toe didn't hurt. He was muttering and stamping his feet, when a teenage boy interrupted him. George asked, "Did they find him?" The boy said, "No, but I think someone should look after your wife." George thanked the boy, and went and hugged Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was in tears. George said, "Mikey's probably just fine."
"But he's not." In her mind, was she pointing an accusatory finger at George? Was she uttering an accusatory, "Let's have a picnic?"
"He might be fine. Maybe he's hiding. He's good at that. Maybe he's hiding in the grass over this way. Nobody's searching in this direction. Let's walk out this way. There's something that I wanted to say, so let's say that Mikey's just fine." They walked with their arms around each other. She didn't respond verbally. But George continued. "Mikey has always been a bundle of energy. You and I can't keep up with him. He runs everywhere. He runs into the streets. He has nearly been killed several times. I constantly worry that he will swallow something or jump off the roof or whatever. He doesn't realize that his actions have consequences. I think that we need to teach him that."
Elizabeth sniffed her agreement.
Just then, they heard a commotion, over by the trees. They both thought, with a mixture of hope and fear, "Maybe they found..." The end of the sentence was jumbled into "Mikey", and "our son", and "my son", and "his body". George was ashamed that he even thought, "his body." He wondered if subconsciously he had actually given up hope.
The boy, who had talked to George earlier, came running up grinning. "Your boy's OK," he gasped, as he had run as fast as he could. "He's in Central City. The Sheriff is sending the helicopter for him."
George said, "Central City, that's a hundred miles away."
The boy replied, "Actually, it's more like 80 miles."
As it turned out, while George and Elizabeth had been out walking, Mikey had gone back to the picnic site. Near there he saw a station wagon, like their neighbors'. He walked up to it and saw that there were blankets in the back. He decided that it was time for a nap, and he opened the door and curled up in the blankets. The owners of the station wagon discovered him when he woke up. They were on the Interstate, near Central City. They took him to the Central City police station.
Author's comment: This story started off, like some of my other stories, as a dream. In my dream, this was an opera. In the opera, when George has the idea, "Let's have a picnic," he sings it over and over again. Everybody thinks it's a great idea, and they are all dancing and leaping about, singing, "Let's have a picnic." Then when George is searching for Mikey, he keeps singing a furious, "Let's have a picnic," accompanied by a driving staccato bass rhythm, like the opening notes of Mahler's Symphony No. 6 (the Tragic Symphony). The dream remained unresolved. They were still searching for Mikey, when I woke up.