"Shine is a vegetarian. Cheese and tomato buns for her." Linda had baked two sizes of sour dough buns. The bacon mozzarella were open-faced hamburger bun size. The cheese and tomato buns were small and thick. Perfect for little hands; hands that reached out across the blue sky of the tablecloth. Into Dumpling's right hand she left words. She did the same with her mother's left hand.
"She's saying, 'Thanks for everything.'"
"Yes!"
There was plenty. The soup was creamy and hot, and the Blue Lakes were crispy, tangy with a very light hand with lemon and olive oil dressing. Shine ate with her hands, facile with them her eyes spoke her delight. "These," she held up the dried cranberries, "are fun." With one hand free she asked "What is their name?'' Her mom answered.
"Let's stroll toward the pea patches, we have something special to show you."
"What about dessert?" Restraint was one thing, but, it didn't include giving up dessert.
Linda reached into the picnic basket and pulled out a long narrow caddy-- one of Dumplings specialties. Shine signed. Linda translated, "Cookies!" The tube of checkered cotton was like a crossword puzzle. Sewn in shades of orange and green squares with white piping between the orange and green, black letters were quilted like the rest of the bag. In capitals C O O K I E S. A thermos with small mugs dangling off a short chain was filled with chocolate milk made with coconut milk.
"That will do." Dumpling tickled Shine transferred her delight to the little girl whose laughter was .... hmmmm. Dumpling batted her resource of words and found "like a colt whinnying." Yes, she thought this was a Ponita.
The pea patch was just one more of those didn't know till now kinds of things. A whimsical wire fence framed in brightly painted yellow slats with stalks and faces of Sunflowers greeted the trio. Standing at different heights the Sunflowers were Shine-height, Linda-height, and Dumpling-height. Each flower had its own name tag to prove 'identity.' "We're been out here every night after work all summer," Linda had a look unfamiliar to her old friend. Soft and relaxed, Dumpling was falling down delirious with the sight.
PLOP! onto the dirt in front of the Sunflower gate, she uttered, "Feed me cookies. I am faint with delirium. Feed me cookies." Shine joined in, signing exactly what she read on Dumpling lips the two shorter humans rolled into each other pleading with voice and fingers flying.
The gate pushed in. A potting shed, simple metal sides and a clear plexi-glass roof housed a weathered wooden bench and small iron table. The shed was sweet, but it was what grew in the dirt between the Sunflower gate and the shed that was completely unexpected.
From her place on the ground, the smell of vanilla filled Dumpling. Two thick rows of long and floppy grass grew. "Grass? You're growing grass."
"Not just any grass, Dumpling. Sweetgrass." There'd be a story here, she knew that for sure.
Linda continued talking as she helped Shine unsnap the metal mugs from their clasps. "Around the Plantain, we're growing mounds of Three Sisters: corn, beans and squash. There are lots of medicine plants here, we left them alone to do their jobs! Between the squat rows of grass a thick furry sort of green filled in. "Lambs quarters. So many people just think they are 'rubbish weed'. The tall spikes rising from the thick clumps of thin veined flat leafed plants Dumpling knew was Plantain. "First-aid Plant."
Linda nodded to the mounds where green Corn stalks were nearly two feet tall. Dumpling recognized the umbrella shaped leaves of Squash already stretching over the dark black circles of dirt. "They're slow to grow, but they know what to do," Dumpling assured Shine who was beaming with pride. "You helped with all of this?" Shine read the question clearly and nodded.
"I've had a visitor." It was Dumpling's turn. The dark gray pouch embroidered with silk threads the color of red earth dangled around her neck. "Raven told me some of what to expect here, but he left a lot out. But what he did leave me was this. He said it needed to wait until after dessert." Shine's dimples creased her cheeks. She reached for the thermos of chocolate milk, twisted the top off and poured the first mug for Dumpling, and opened the zippered satchel.
"You first," Dumpling said. "Children always ate first in our house."
Freed up and breathing more deeply than she'd done in a very long long time Linda unfolded more story. "My father had a second family. You know my father's side of the family is from the South West. We always though Mexico, but that was a simple way of identifying. Not necessarily accurate."
The story that unrolled over Chinese Almond Cookies and chocolate milk was as much the story of what a family will do when they must leave home in a hurry. The papers that say Linda is her mother are the legality. "Shine is my sister, my very little sister." Dumpling got it, "She is your dumpling, your squash."
"Yes." Her mother was a muli ... a transitional being. The last of her line as I understand it. When my father died, so did she. My father's family has raised her for the passed two years. Outside of Taos, New Mexico. In the Rincon Hills. And then they came to visit."
"Raven said whatever is in this pouch is for you Shine," Dumpling put the last of the melt-in-your-mouth cookie in place, took a sip of chocolate milk then put the pouch in Shine's right palm. "Yours." She said making sure the girl could see Dumpling golden face.
Twelve Bean seeds in a variety of shades and sizes tumbled from the pouch. "Beans start with two heart-shaped leaves." Shine talked with her hands. She knew the rest of the story, and it would come with time.
There's more magic growing with Shine's name on it. Skip over here.
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